


F-Zero: Being Bold

by YBBB



Category: F-Zero (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2018-10-03 05:51:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10237268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YBBB/pseuds/YBBB
Summary: This is a story about a young kid and his adventures that forever set him on the course of becoming the universe's most fearless bounty hunter and renown F-Zero Grand Prix Champion. It's the year 2532 and young Douglas Jay Falcon dreams of one day becoming the best F-Zero pilot there is! Friendship, excitement, and heartbreak ensue as he learns what it really means to "be bold."





	1. Rough Beginnings

The announcer called out, “You got Boost Power!”

**Ever since I was a kid.**

“ _C’mon c’mon C’MON!”_

Ever so diligently he watched the track as the racers passed each other in a fight for first place.

“What are you doing!? Stay focused! Don’t fall behind!”

 There were pilots from all over the galaxy who were racing at top speed on a course that defied gravity. This was an intense high-speed derby where racers from all over the galaxy would compete…

**I knew there was one thing I was always born to be.**

There were thirty racers for today’s race. He was in the thirtieth spot, last place.

**It’s what I dreamed about.**

It was the last course of the Ruby Cup Grand Prix. It was hosted live in the multiplex of Aeropolis. He was now in twenty-ninth place. “Be steady, stay calm, you can do this.” he told himself. Twenty-eighth place. Tension was high as he struggled to gain speed on the track. His heart was pounding. Twenty-Seventh place. Sweat was seeping into the interior padding of his gloves. The course ran on for about sixteen thousand and five hundred meters. His hands were shaking. Twenty-Sixth place.

**It’s what I talked about.**

“Don’t slip up!”

He slid ever-so-slightly around the first bend, and slammed his vehicle into another racer on his right. The left side of the pilot’s vehicle was crushed inward. The luster was gone and blackened from the scratches and damage that the exterior received from its tumbling on the track. Their car wasn’t looking in great condition. Sparks flew. He was now in twenty-fifth place. He turned left and then slid right, dodging the curves of race track. Twenty-Fourth place. Quickly and carefully he stayed on course. Twenty-Fifth place. There was a ninety degree turn coming up on his left. Twenty-Fourth place. He drifted around the first corner, being careful not to let go he continued to drift around a second ninety degree corner following immediately after. He angled his vehicle to line up with the middle of the track. He slammed into another driver. Crashing and burning they had careened off the edge. Twenty-Third place.

**It’s what I lived for.**

He activated his boost, and gained more speed by gliding over one of the course’s speed increasing dash plates. He soared through the sky like a falcon. “You’re staying in the air for too long, bring it down.” He thought to himself as he angled for more speed. He hit the track. Eighteenth place. The track was getting wavy.

“Don’t slow down!”

**To be fast.**

Slide left! Now slide right! He was coming up on the loop, and he was coming up _fast._ He dodged the first dirt patch then hit another dash plate. “Dodge that other patch!” he dodged. He was now in Tenth place. He hit a second dash plate and dodged the next dirt patch. He was on a roll. He slid left straight into another dash plate and shot forward. Fifth place, Fourth place, Third, Second, _First place!_ Drift right!

The announcer called out, “This is the final lap!”

This was it: The final lap. He flipped the switch that engaged his vehicle’s boost power. He was getting confident. He missed the jump pad. “No big deal, I can still win” he reasoned. He knew the track; he had this in the bag. Victory was his…

**To be fearless.**

The racer in second place was approaching his right at an alarming rate.

“What?”

They had caught up. He made eye contact with the other racer. A fierce looking wolf-like person was glaring at him, furiously. They were tied. Denizens from the planet Zou really were a force not to be trifled with. They rammed his vehicle’s right side as hard as they could. He was starting to lose grip of the wheel. He crashed into the tunnel wall with unbelievable force! Second place.

“Keep moving!”

Smoking, no longer levitating off the floor, his vehicle had come to a complete halt.

“No!”

**To be _bold._**

Third, Fourth, Fifth, Tenth, twentieth!

“No! No!”

**I knew…**

Twenty-Ninth place.

“No! No! NOOO!”

The Race was over…

**I was born a racer.**

Douglas Jay Falcon’s hero, _Jade Grouse_ , was in last place. This…was the F-Zero Tournament.

 


	2. Stranger Kids

The year was 2532. Douglas was eight years old and today was the day of the big F-Zero Ruby Cup Finals. Douglas had more or less skipped the entire school day to watch his hero race. A crafty and smart kid, Douglas pretended to be sick by some rather…extreme methods. Knowing who was watching over him he had to be creative and convincing in order to fool his guardian. Before each tournament starts, the official dates and times of the races were announced by F-Zero host, Mr. Zero.

“Make sure you save the date! This is going to be a race to remember!” Mr. Zero would always say.

Douglas was able to get the exact dates of the Ruby Cup races and planned ahead. He tried everything in the book to catch some sort of sickness, but it couldn’t be just a cold because last time he faked a cold he ran into a bit of a problem…

**I remember that day so vividly.**

“ _Douglas!_ What are you doing?! You need to get ready for school! You need to _be_ at the bus stop!”

“aaaah I’m sick I can’t move” He said as he faintly waved both his hands in the air

“Oh _really?_

**I was very sick.**

“Yeah I, cough cough, I think I need to stay home from school today. I’m s-so cold.” He reached out to her, _dramatically._

“Doug, you know you’re supposed to _actually_ cough when you’re sick, right? Not say ‘cough’?”

“U-Um!”

“ _DOUG!”_

“OH NO IM DEAF I CANT SEE!”

“THAT’S THE WRONG MEDICAL CONDITION! GET OUT OF BED!”

“Okay okay! I’m sorry! I’ll get ready now!” He frantically apologized.

**My Guardian, Anna, wasn’t very convinced.**

The problem was that he was very bad at pretending to be sick. And because that option had officially been taken off the table, sealed away, and dead bolted he needed to _actually_ be sick to stay home. In this case, Douglas had sat outside in the backyard all night naked every day and deliberately avoided washing his hands in order to catch the flu.

“A-ACHOO!”

It worked.

Douglas Jay Falcon was taken care of by a scrap yard worker who lived in Port City called _Anna Sparks._ She was a tall woman around the age of thirty and was kind but stern. Sparks did her best to raise the recently orphaned child, though it wasn’t an easy task. Her normal pay was only really enough to provide for herself so she often had to take overtime shifts at her work. Exhausted and tired, she often returned home and almost always immediately fell asleep on their couch.

**She was a hard worker.**

While she wasn’t related to him by blood, she was the closest family friend and only qualified caretaker as Douglas didn’t have any other extended family. Douglas was left in her care after his parents died in an unfortunate run in with an intergalactic criminal on their way home from a restaurant they liked to go too. The criminal got away and Douglas was left with the police informing him of the bad news that had occurred that night.

“Oh no, honey, are you sick?”

“Y-Yeah, I think I’m coming down with something not…f-fake this time.”

“Let me check your temperature”

**But she was always on point.**

“WOW! Your temperature is really high! Hold on while I get you some medicine and soup!” She hurriedly ran off to get Douglas some medicine.

“Up next on F-Zero TV! The final race of the Ruby Cup is about to go down! Stay tuned after a word from our sponsors!” The television could be heard from the end of the hallway, seemed like Anna had left it on while she crashed on the couch last night. There was little time left before the race started so he had to get her out of the house as quickly as possible.

“Okay I got you some medicine and some soup! Let me help-“

“Anna, I got it you, need to work!”

“Yes I know but your health is more-“

“Those scrap yards aren’t going to scrap themselves, GO!”

“Okay but how did you catch the flu? It’s middle of summer?”

“O-Oh, I um, one of the kids in my class had a cold and I guess I caught it?”

“Okay…well I love you” Anna started heading out the door

“I love you too”

“DRINK LOTS OF FLUIDS!” She yelled from the doorway

“OKAY!”

“GET LOTS OF SLEEP!”

“I’LL BE FINE ANNA!” She finished as she closed the front door behind her. Douglas was finally alone, his master plan had worked. And with a sigh of relief he whispered under his breathe…

**I won’t lie.**

“I lied.” he lied.

**But I was lying.**

After cautiously checking to see if she had left he switched on the television and found he was just in time for the countdown.

“THREE…TWO…ONE…GO!”

The F-Zero pilots fired off, casually gaining speed, and knocking each other out of the way in order to get into lead. Douglas wasn’t just watching for the exhilarating speed though, he was attentively watching for his hero: Jade Grouse. A lot of the other kids his age were also into F-Zero racing, maybe not as passionately as Douglas was, but they all had their favorite racers, usually whoever was winning. Who wouldn’t though? They were the number one, the coolest, and at the top of their career. But for Falcon his hero wasn’t always the fastest, and he rarely made it to first, but there’s one thing Jade Grouse had over everyone else: Passion.

Twists and turns, thirty F-Zero racers competing against one another, nothing this day and age could fill you with so much adrenaline. Douglas watched with such vigor it was almost like he was there with them. Win or lose, Douglas was there for one reason, seeing Jade Grouse in action. Seeing that green vehicle shine with “Sharp Eagle” written on its sides weaving in and out of competitor’s way filled him up with so much excitement he felt like he was part of the crowd. As the race ended the winners were given their awards and interviews with Mr. Zero himself. During break other pilots would be interviewed about plans for next the tournament.  Grouse always answered with the same thing, “I don’t race for money or for fame; I race for my passion, and all the people who believe in me! Winning isn’t about being lucky, it’s about being bold!” Grouse always said. That’s what had inspired Douglas, that’s what made Douglas want to be an F-Zero pilot so badly. And one day he’d achieve that dream no matter what, just like his hero.

 

**But this was the start.**

A week passed since that day.

Still excited about the grand prix, Douglas spent the rest of his “completely accidentally flu contracted” days dreaming about the F-Zero Grand Prix. Even after his sickness cleared he dreamed about one day being able to enter a race himself. But something always kept him from making that first step towards being the racer he always wanted to be. He was never really sure what. Maybe he was afraid of worrying Anna?

“Afternoon Mrs. Garrison! Can I help you with your groceries”

He was on his way home from school. Everyone knew Douglas, he was always ready to lend a helpful hand.

“Oh hello Dougie, that’s very thoughtful of you! If you wouldn’t mind!”

“F-ZERO HERO DOUGLAS FALCON TO THE RESCUE!”

He struggled to carry one of the many bags of groceries. Douglas wasn’t sure if she had bought a lot of food or a lot of weights and disguised them with a thin layer of food to fool him. About thirty minutes passed.

“Thank you Dougie, I got this just for you.”

She pulled out a figurine of racer number 14: Kaja Storm.

“Woah is that what I think it is!”

“I know you love that F-Zero thing so I thought I’d get you this as payment for always being so helpful.”

“Wooooooooaah thanks Mrs. Garrison!”

He turned to head home when suddenly he came back, struck a heroic pose with his hands on his hips.

“I mean, IT’S NO PROBLEM CITIZEN! JUST DOING WHAT A HERO DOES!”

He gave a big grin and then ran off.

**The reason I became an F-Zero racer.**

Maybe it was fear? A sweep of emotions was overwhelming him as he thought about the grand prix race last week. He looked at the toy Kaja Storm. He thought of his hero.

“Jade Grouse is so cool, the way he stands with pride! The way he stares fear itself in the face!”

Douglas couldn’t stop thinking of the race. He was always a good hearted kid but ever since he had started watching F-Zero races he started acting like his favorite super heroes. He always dreamed of making the world a better place, no matter the small gesture.

“Good afternoon, Douglas!”

“GOOD AFTERNOON CAPTAIN FATAL FIST!” Douglas shouted as he came up to retired hero.

“How’re you doing, lad!”

“I’m good, sir!”

“What you got there?”

“Mrs. Garrison gave it to me for helping out so much! Isn’t it cool?”

“She gave you a toy? Why back in my day-“

“Children would work for money! I know I know! But I don’t want money, you’re appreciation is more than enough!”

“A-HAR HAR HAR! YOU’RE A FUNNY KID! Youth today really are incredible what with the Formular Zeroes! And in my day it was always bounty hunting and helping the poor but with technology this day you have cars that go past one thousand miles per hour and I can barely keep up it makes my head spin but you kids love it so much and it’s amazing what youth want to be each generat-“

“Okay okay, sir! I get it! How are your arms treating you? Did the medicine I gave you work?”

“Aaaargh they’re better than ever, lad! It’s amazing I feel like I could punch a wall out just like the old days!”

He wound up to punch the wall and…

“S-SIR WAIT PLEASE DON’T!”

“A-HAR HAR HAAAAAaaargh my baaaack!”

He had punched the wall.

“Oh man, Captain Fatal Fist I told you you’re not supposed to put any stress on your body while taking the medicine!”

“Owowoowoww sometimes I forget that! You have to forgive this old man’s memory”

“I-It’s okay, here let’s get you to a place to rest!”

“Aaaargh you’re a good kid, you know!”

“It’s nothing really! I’m just doing what any hero would do!”

“A-har har! Ah, you remind me of myself when I was younger! You’ll do fine, lad!”

“Thank you, sir.”

Douglas helped Captain Fatal Fist to his home and left with a final salute to the retired hero.

 

**The most fearless of people I’ve ever met.**

As he continued his journey home from school, he stopped here and there helping the neighborhood with chores and other various tasks. Since his home was on the very edge of the town he tried to make the best of his life, especially since there weren’t many houses where he lived so he was never shy to reach out. Douglas was lost in thought faint sounds could be heard from the top of the hill he was walking down.

“Look out below!”

**I’ll never forget.**

“HEY YOU I SAID…”

**Samantha Samantha.**

“LOOK OUT BELO-“

The person crashed into Douglas with such high speed and with such great force, both of them were propelled about ten feet away from where Douglas was standing. Douglas was still completely dazed from his bump in when he heard from behind, quite abruptly, with a masked crackle and static…

“Whaaat the HECK, SHORT STACK!”

**We were the same height.**

“Wh-Wha?” he said, slowly picking himself up off the road

“DON’T ‘Wha?’ ME, PUNK! LOOKIT WHAT YA DID TO MY…” She angrily pointed to her-

**And she quotes**

“SMOLDERING PILE OF CARDBOARD!”

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize! Here let me-“

“NO…no it’s okay, it’s already gone.” She sighed. _Loudly._

“Man, me and my mom spent all afternoon yesterday on that.” She turned to him.

“Don’t apologize, I shoulda installed brakes on my car. My name is Sam-Sam. Um it’s short for Samantha Samantha!” She offers her hand to help him on his feet.

Sam-Sam was a fiery child who was fearless and courageous. She was a blond girl around eleven years old who wore a pink sweater that was three times too big for her and had augmentations on the left side of her face starting from her ear and eye to her chin. Her eye was completely replaced by a mechanical eye piece that looked like one half of a goggle that wrapped around the side of her head. Her ear was a mechanical receiver that most likely acted as a hearing aid. Trailing down from her ear mic was a series of metal plates extending down to her chin. And at the center of her chin was a red light; underneath was a mechanical collar that completely surrounded her neck, which had a speaker.

“D-Douglas Jay Falcon!” He hesitates

“NICE TO MEET YA, SHORTY MCFLY!”

**She always wore sweaters three times as big as her.**

“Sh-Shorty?”

 “Anyways, this hunk-o-junk is totally busted. So Imma gonna go find some new boxes, see ya!”

“W-Wait! What is that anyways?”

“Oh? OH! Ya mean Ol’ CARdboard here? It’s my F-Zero machine!” she said with a shred of smugness scratching the back of her head.

“You like F-Zero?”

This was it.

**The moment that changed both our lives forever.**

Sam-Sam lowered her arm.

“Oh! Yeah of course.”

“Can…Can I help?”

The two paused and stared at each other. Sam-Sam’s voice modulator crackled as she began to speak.

“uh…yeah.”

Douglas and Sam-Sam began gathering the leftover pieces of cardboard onto her wagon and moved back up hill. They began talking about everything F-Zero as they made their way back to her house.

“Wait wait wait wait okay so tell me again why _Jade Grouse_ is ya favorite racer?” The voice modulator crackled in a way that made it sound like a snicker.

“What do you mean ‘why’ HE’S SO COOL! DID YOU SEE THE WAY PULLED AROUND THOSE CORNERS IN AEROPOLIS OR HOW HE SPED UP USING HIS BOOST POWER LIKE FWOOSH!”

“Yeah but he never wins. He’s always last nowadays.”

“Okay then who’s YOUR favorite, Samantha?”

“It’s _Sam-Sam_ , and Kaja Storm is way cooler!”

“Nu uh!”

“Oh stop being a butt, Douglas!”

They both laughed. They talked about F-Zero and their favorite races all the way back to her place. Her house was moderately sized, enough for a regular family. Living on the outskirts of Port City was much more spacious than inner city counter parts. While Douglas didn’t live in an apartment his home was still much smaller than Sam-Sam’s.

“Anyways, WELCOME TO MY HOME!” Sam-Sam opened the door to reveal a spacious living room that led to a kitchen, upstairs, family room, or backyard.

“MOOOooom I’M HOOOoome! I BROUGHT A NEW FRIEND TOO!” She yelled at the highest volume setting possible.

From upstairs they could hear her mom descending.

“Oh my! Who is this, sweetie?”

“This is Douglas! He’s gotta name of a bird that I can’t remember aaaaaand he loves F-Zero like me!”

“Oh my little girl has already made a new friend! That’s exciting!” She clapped her hands together in glee.

“Well, Mom’s off to work now, sweetie so please be kind to our guest!”

She snidely leans in to her daughters hearing mic.

“And why don’t you show him your F-Zero collection.”

“MOM!”

“SORRY GOT TO GO!” She said, dashing out the front door like a bolt of lightning.

“F-Zero collection?” Asked Douglas.

“E H E  H E  H E E…Lets go to my room it was SUPPOSE to be a surprise.”

Sam-Sam took his hand hurried him upstairs, and before he knew it they were. Sam-Sam’s room, F-Zero pilot figurines everywhere, Posters all over the wall featuring different Grand Prix winners and autographed posters. She even had some art she drew taped on her closet doors. The two talked more and more about F-Zero: Other favorite racers, favorite races, least favorite pilots. They even spent a while with some of Sam-Sam’s model F-Zero vehicles and pretended to race around the house like it was its own grand prix race track. It was clear from their time together that day that their love for F-Zero was unrivaled. But unfortunately for them, the day was drawing near its end and soon Douglas had to go home.

**Just as any race must end.**

The two kids promised to meet each other again tomorrow for their special box hunting mission in order to make the coolest home-made F-Zero racing vehicle Port City had ever seen. And with that, Douglas left for home. By the time he got back it was already dark out, the city still bustling like the day never ended, he unlocked the front door with a key Sparks gave him when he moved in. There she was, without fail, on the couch again passed out still in her jumpsuit with muddy boots and gloves still on. Deciding against alerting Sparks to his safe arrival he gently closes the door and tip toes over to the remote ad turns off the television which she had accidentally left on again. Gently taking off her boots he lays a blanket on top of her whispering…

“Goodnight, Anna, see you tomorrow.”

As he heads to his room he hears meekly…

“H…ws…yrday?”

Douglas turned around, Sparks was still asleep.

“It was…really nice. I made a new friend.”

“Thass…” She ended her sleep talking at that.

Douglas weakly smiled, walked towards his bedroom, and closed the door behind him. The day was over.

 


	3. Play Date

**Port City, my home town.**

Port City is a lively place. Thanks to the F-Zero Grand Prix and intergalactic trade routes, it’s out of the question that there’s always something going on inside Port City. Goods and equipment come in from all over and are shipped through this intergalactic checkpoint. In a way, Port City acts as a rest stop and warehouse for galactic trading. Because of this, there are also nefarious gangs and criminals that think of this city as a hotspot for getting rich quick. Normally gangs would keep their business private and only deal with… _clients_. But there have been many occasions where they’ve caused some inner city mayhem, usually ending with police raids and even shootouts. It’s always the same: Not enough income from deals, the clients who avoid paying, kidnappings, and rivalries. But Port City had its fair share of good though. The cops were usually immediately on the case and always responded to the people. In fact, that day on the news…

**Crime was on the rise.**

“A key member of the malicious Skull Breaker Gang was arrested today thanks to F-Zero pilot Kaja Storm and her fearless dedication to upholding justice. Tell us Miss Storm, how did you do it?”

“Well Patricia, I came here to visit my favorite cheese steak hoagie when I saw the-“

“CRIMINAL!” Sparks yelled from the bathroom

“THIS IS CRIMINAL!”

“What’s criminal?” asked Douglas

“THIS!” She storms in and throws down broken brush

“A brush?”

“A BRRR-OKEN BRUSH!”

“It’s just a brush?”

“YOU’RE JUST A BRUSH, HON! THIS WAS BRAND NEW AND I BOUGHT IT FOR TWENTY SPACE CREDITS!” She threw her hands in the air and belted

“UGH!”

“Anna relax, you don’t have to look good, you’re just meeting her mom”

“Are you trying to tell me I’m not already good-looking.”

“No Anna, you’re beautiful.”

“Damn straight, kiddo!”

It was Spark’s only day off and she promised to meet with Sam-Sam’s mom because-

**And I quote again.**

“My lil’ pumpkin pop made a new friend!” She hugged him as hard as she could.

“A-Anna…I’m S-S-Still eat-t-ting breakf-f-f-aaast!”

“Okay! Well hurry up I’m excited I can’t wait to meet them!”

She walked off in order to continue prepping.

**But these days criminals leave unfulfilled.**

Douglas continued filling up on his breakfast and went to his room to get ready. It was a small room, and there wasn’t much to it. It had a window a few dressers to the side. Some posters of Jade Grouse that hung up on the walls with action figures and F-Zero model machines presented proudly. Naturally, this wasn’t always his room; it was Anna’s long before. To be precise, this was the only bedroom available. Sparks had given Douglas her room to help him settle in.

“It’s not right that a boy has to lose his parents, you’re not going to lose your privacy either.

She had said. All her stuff was either packed away in the front hall closet or some duffle bags. He always did his best to make it up to her but could never find the heart to bring it up; she’d probably just say something like-

“You’re being stubborn, _I’m_ your guardian, and it’s _my_ job to make you feel at home in this tiny…tiny home. Shack really. Not much of a home, I’m sorry.”

Or…

“No kid is going to be sleeping on the couch in my house. You’ll take my room and like it whether you want to or not!”

Douglas finished getting ready. He and Sparks got in her car and drove off to Sam-Sam’s house.

**In a way I have Sam-Sam to thank for that.**

It only took about fifteen to twenty minutes to drive her house. As they pulled up Sparks’ nervousness was showing.

“Hoooooh gosh I’m really nervous, are you nervous? I’m nervous!”

She wasn’t very subtle about it either.

“Anna relax, it’s just my friend’s house.”

“Well aren’t you a bold little kid!”

They both got out of the car. You could see the right side of Sam-Sam’s face squashed up against the glass. Anyone could tell that she was excited to see her new friend. It was a big day after all, they were going to build their very own F-Zero machine and Sam-Sam couldn’t be more excited. As they walked up Sam-Sam _bolted_ from the window to the front door and waited…as patiently as her quickly pacing feet could. In her head she counted down just like Mr. Zero did during the grand prix.

“Three…”

Douglas and Sparks got out of the car

“Two…”

They approached the front door

“One…”

Douglas rang the doorbell.

Sam-Sam swung open the door. Her eyes lit up with excitement. There was a crackle from her speaker but her face went blank. She had completely forgotten what she was about to say she was so excited.

“Hey Sam-Sam, uhm, this is my guardia-“

“ANNA!” Sparks blurted out.

“Yeah, uhm, Anna.”

“…”

“Um Sam-Sam?”

“…OH! HEY! I-I’m Sam-Sam, its short for Samantha Samantha!”

“…”

“…”

“Anna, weren’t you going to go meet Mrs. Samantha?”

“…YES! AHAHA RIGHT! THAT! I’M GOING TO DO THAT!”

“Okay.”

“RIGHT NOW!”

“I said ‘Okay’ Anna.”

“OKAY!”

“Okaaay well I’ll go get my mother then.”

Sam-Sam left to go save the already pretty awkward conversation from getting anymore awkward. Douglas had never thought of it but he soon realized that Sparks had incredible social anxiety. He looked at her, she was fidgeting. Was she really going to be okay? He looked up and smiled; she looked down and nervously smiled too.

“Your friend is as cute as a button.”

“Stop you’re being embarrassing.”

Just as Sparks was about to say something else Mrs. Samantha walked in.

“Ah! Welcome! You must be Miss Sparks!”

“Ah, y-yes! I am! “

“Hi, nice to meet you, my name is Diana Samantha.”

Douglas interrupted.

“Well, me and Sam-Sam are going to go play now! I’ll see you later!”

“O-Okay! Have fun!” Sparks yelled out and also mouthed the words “Don’t leave me alone!” But it was no use, they were already halfway up the stairs.

**She wasn’t an ordinary kid.**

The two kids ran up to Sam-Sam’s room. They slammed the door shut. Both on their knees in the middle of the floor Sam-Sam’s voice modulator crackled once more her face dead serious.

“Are ya ready…for the F-Zero Grand Prix?”

Douglas nodded his head.

“I was born ready.”

She grinned.

“Then check this sucka out.”

It was blueprints. And by blueprints, it was really more like poorly scrawled scribbles of crayons and colored pencils that vaguely resembled a series of what could be made out to be poorly drawn boxes connected to each other with to horrifically freakish four legged monsters sticking out of what could be considered the front-most end. Probably.

“IT’S AN F-ZERO MACHINE YA JERK!” she crackled loudly.

“Okay, so how are we going to build it?” Douglas said as he held back his laughter.

“H E  H E! Just you wait!” She jumps up immediately and runs over to her closet and dives in.

**She literally dove into her closet.**

There were sounds of rummaging as she looked for whatever it was. It took minutes. There was shuffling and grunting, her closet must have been an entire new dimension. Douglas was tempted to look in there but skittishly decided against it.

“A-Are you okay?”

A distant crackling called out.

“HURM p-peachy!”

A few more minutes pass and just as Douglas decided maybe he should help, Sam-Sam launched herself out of the closet holding multiple flattened out cardboard boxes and some arts and crafts supplies. She looked extremely proud.

“Check this out!” she extended her arms out.

“This is our ticket.”

“T-Ticket?”

“For the Junior F-Zero Derby!”

“Wait what!?”

Douglas was shocked, this was the first time she had ever brought this up.

“H E  H E! We’re going to enter it!”

“Enter it!?”

“Uh yeah? We’re building our own F-Zero machine for a reason!”

“I th-thought it w-w-was just f-for fun!”

“IT IS BUT WE’RE GOING TO KICK BUTT TOO!”

“Bu-But I don’t have what it takes!”

“Ya _do_ have what it takes!”

“I’ve never been in a competition before!”

“Now ya will have!”

“I can’t possibly!”

“ _Douglas!_ If ya don’t take chances now ya will never achieve your dreams! Ya need to be bold! Ya need to be fearless!”

Bold. There that word was again.

“…”

“How can ya sit back and watch others and do nothing!”

Just like his hero, Sam-Sam was full of confidence; she was ready to wrangle anything by the horns.

“Are ya with me?”

“I…”

She looked at him with determined eyes.

“I…”

As much as Douglas loved F-Zero racing he has never taken many chances before.

“I…am.”

Sam-Sam’s face went from serious to overwhelmingly happy, her eyes shined.

“We’re gonna kick their butts, Douglas, we’re gonna kick their butts.”

The two nodded at each other and then got to work looking for materials to assemble their machine with.

Meanwhile, Sparks was struggling to make conversation with Mrs. Samantha.

“So, what do you do for living?”

“O-Oh! Ha ha! Nothing special!”

She fidgeted with tea that Mrs. Samantha made for her, her eyes darting around trying to find literally anything that wasn’t Mrs. Samantha.

“You know…I junk cars and…stuff.”

“Oh, that sounds like tough work, and you take care of Douglas all by yourself?”

“Yeah! I mean, I haven’t always, actually. It’s only been a few years.”

“A few years? Are his parents away?”

“Ah…I guess you could say that. I mean, no, not really, I mean they use to leave him with me to babysit. Though that was because I’m really their only friend and they trusted me, but that’s not the reason now. Like, oh gosh, sorry see um, his parents died.”

“Oh no, I’m so sorry I had no idea.”

“No no, it’s fine. I’ve never been good about talking about it.”

The atmosphere was very awkward. They could hear the kids yelling and making noise upstairs.

**Her mother.**

“Hey what does your mother do?” Douglas asked as he held two pieces of cardboard together as the glue dried.

“My mama? She’s an internova police officer!”

Sam-Sam was making logos of their team on the sides of the cardboard machine.

“Does she ever catch the bad guys?”

“Mmm sometimes! But normally just complains about lazy coworkers and paper work.”

“That sounds boring.”

“Yeah, but she’s still really cool because she has caught a lot of bad guys!”

**Her father.**

“What about your father do?”

“My dad’s a really cool bounty hunter!”

“Woah really?”

“Yeah! He’s always off catching dangerous criminals when my mama can’t!”

“That’s so cool! I bet he sees a lot of action!”

“He does! But that also means he’s never home.”

“O-Oh…”

“It’s fine really! He sends cards and occasionally does video calls with us!”

“That must be nice…”

“Yeah, um what about’cha? Yer mom is nice!”

“That’s not actually my mom, well I guess now she is bu-“

Sam-Sam had paused what she was doing and looked over to him.

“Ya mean ya don’t know yer parents?”

“I did! They just…”

The atmosphere was awkward for them too.

**Both were large influences on my career choice.**

“Hey.”

Sam-Sam got up.

“We’re gonna need costumes for our big arrival.”

She walked over to the closet again and started rifling through it.

“Ah! There it is!”

She pulled out a giant yellow scarf.

“Here! This is for ya!”

She handed Douglas the scarf.

“I want’cha to wear this.”

**And Sam-Sam.**

“A-A scarf?”

Sam-Sam nodded.

“My dad gave this to me before he left on one of his missions when I was scared of him leaving. I used to always cry when I thought he’d never come back. So one day as he was leaving the house he turned to me after he heard me crying and gave me this.”

Sam-Sam’s face was somber.

**He said to her.**

“My dearest Sam-Sam, I want you to have my scarf. That way whenever I leave, you’ll know I’m fighting for your safety. I’m fighting to make the universe safer for you. You know, the color yellow in some cultures stands for courage. And in our culture it stands for happiness. Be bold, sweetpea, and be happy. I’ll be home before you even start to miss me.”

Douglas stared at the scarf in his hands. He thought of his parents, of Sparks. He wrapped the scarf around his neck and said.

“Well? How do I look?”

**Sam-Sam was the most supportive of them all.**

She looked at Douglas.

“Ya look cool.” Sam-Sam said and smiled warmly.

And when he smiled she had noticed something about his eyes. Watery, but also something else; his eyes glowed with pride. You could see sparks.

**We had even built our first machine together.**

“Now!” She jumped suddenly.

“We have to prepare for the race!”

“Oh yeah, I suppose we can’t enter it if we don’t have a machine.”

“E X A C T L Y! Douglas, we gotta make it the best of the best! There’s gonna be a lotta racers and that means we can’t slack off!”

“Okay! So what’s the plan!”

“The plan is too find enough materials to rebuild this wonderful machine of ours!”

She patted the ‘floor plans’ of the machine.

“So today we need supplies to keep it together!”

“What do we need, exactly, Sam-Sam?”

“We need duct-tape, glue, staples, more duct-tape, and glitter!”

**That’s right.**

“G-Glitter?”

“Listen Dougy, if I’m gonna beat down all the kids on the block, I wanna do it looking pretty!”

**Glitter was item number one on her checklist.**

“O-Okay” Douglas agreed with a smile.

And they were off. The first day of the Pre-Junior F-Zero Grand Prix was collecting the necessary supplies to build their racing machine. They started with the attic of Sam-Sam’s home in hopes to find duct-tape hidden amongst the storage. There were boxes and boxes of various materials that never made it out of the unpacking stage of moving.

“Oh? Hey, Sam-Sam what’s this?”

“Hm? Oh that’s some of my dad’s old bounty-hunting gear!”

“Does it still work?”

“Nah, probably not, it’s ol’ stuff but he gets sentimental over this kinda stuff so he holds onto it.”

“Wooow.” Douglas examined the old costumes and equipment. He was holding a black jacket that looked like a pilot’s jacket from the military. Douglas thought to himself that Sam-Sam’s dad must have always wanted to be an intergalactic bounty hunter even since he was a kid. He could see where Sam-Sam’s undying passion came from. He put the jacket down and resumed his search. They looked high and low for the duct-tape until they finally found it.

“A-HA! FOUND YA!” Sam-Sam’s voice modulator boomed.

“Now we gotta look for the glue and staples!”

“Right!”

The two kids had shot of like a rocket down the attic stairs and down the hall. They slip and slide left on the boarded flooring with their socks muffling the excited footsteps; they giggled and laugh as Douglas descended the staircase as fast as possible while Sam-Sam slid down the stair railing.

“W A H!”

Loud feedback could easily be heard from her voice projection system.

“Frrr-I-CKIN’!”

Douglas reached the bottom of the staircase.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I hurt my butt though…” 

Sam-Sam got up. Douglas could see that she was in pain but she had held it back.

“Augh, anyways we gotta find the other stuff. And glitter.”

**Glitter was very important to her.**

The two had turned the house upside down in hopes of finding more materials: cupboards, drawers, boxes, under Sam-Sam’s bed, under the table, under Sparks’ seat. Eventually they both hung their heads in defeat as they headed up to Sam-Sam’s room without any more materials.

“It’s no use, Sam-Sam, we can’t find it anywhere!”

“That’s quitter talk, kiddo! It’s gotta be here somewhere!”

“But we checked EVERYWHERE!”

“Hrrrrmmm…there’s gotta be a place we haven’t checked yet.”

“I don’t know about that, we even checked the trash…twice.”

“Ya know what they say Doug! One alien’s trash is another cyborg’s treasure!”

“I don’t think that’s how the quote goes.”

There was an awkward silence filling the room. Douglas played with his scarf a little while he thought. Sam-Sam paced impatiently. After a while, they both laid on the floor bouncing ideas as to where the materials needed could have been. And glitter.

**It was _very_ important.**

Time had seemed to have moved forward at a snail’s pace.

“Hey, Doug?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“Thanks for what?”

“For helping me build m… _our_ machine.”

“Of course, I did break your old one after all.”

“I guess, but ya know I think it was destiny.”

“Pfft what? Sam-Sam that’s crazy.”

Sam-Sam rolled onto her stomach and placed her head into her hands.

“I got this feelin’ ‘bout’cha.”

“Don’t be a doofus, I’m not so special.”

“No, Doug I’m serious.” Her volume raised slightly.

“When we were talkin’ ‘bout all those racers ‘n’ stuff I could feel ya passion!”

“What do you mean Sam-Sam?”

“I mean, Doug, when you said you were born to be a pilot I think that’s more true than you realize. Ya gonna do great things one day I bet’cha my one real eye on it.”

“It was really just a thing I said. That’s all.”

“…maybe, I guess we’ll see who’s right when it’s time to race.”

“But we still need a machine before we can race!”

There was a knock on the bedroom door and Mrs. Samantha peak her head in a bit.

“Looking for these?”

“M O O O M ! ! NO WAY!”

“We noticed you kids were running around looking for somethings and Anna maaay or may not have overheard what you needed too.”

“Y-Yeah, we g-g-got you those materials you were both hunting f-f-for!”

Sam-Sam charged at the door and stopped dead in her tracks right in front of Sparks. Sam-Sam grabbed her hands and locked eyes with her with such intensity, even Sparks couldn’t look away.

“EVEN THE GLITTER!”

“Y-Yes…”

“I LOVE YOU!”

“So intense.”  
“So intense.” Douglas and Sparks said under their breathe.

“And that’s not all! We brought you a bunch of boxes for you to use for your machine!”

Both kids’ eyes lit up like fireworks, they had so many ideas but they didn’t know where to start. After Sparks and Diana had gone back downstairs they immediately drew down on scrap paper for concepts of what they wanted their machine to look like.

“FLAMES!”  
“SKULLS!”

“I want us to be feared!”

“I want us to look cool!”

“Flames do _not_ look cool Douglas!”

“What! Yeah they do!”

“No they don’t!”

They had argued long into the afternoon about every last detail. Right down to the last decoration.

“PINK!”  
“NEON GREEN!”

“FOR THE LAST TIME DOUGLAS, NO ONE THINKS NEON GREEN IS A GOOD COLOR!”

“I THINK IT’S A GREAT COLOR!”

“AND THAT’S WHY WE’RE PAINTING IT PINK!”

**We went with blue.**

“GLITTER!”

“FINE!”

“Wait really?”

“Yeah, I mean we looked for so long why not?”

Douglas and Sam-Sam had barely contained their excitement for as long as they had. They had worked restlessly on the cardboard machine that they had finally decided on. Eventually they had fallen asleep; night had swept over in what had almost seemed like an instant. It was time for Douglas and Sparks to head home. She poked her head into the room to find that the two were sprawled out over the floor which was covered in paper, scraps, tape, glitter, crayons, paint, more paint, and other various materials they had used to decorate the machine. Sparks smiled.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve seen him this happy in a long time.” Sparks whispers to Diana.

“You’re referring to his parents, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t imagine what it must be like for a kid.”

“I don’t think really think we’ll ever really know but…”

Sparks had paused and looked at Diana.

“I’m really glad he found your daughter, Doug is a good kid.”

Diana was quiet.

“And, well, Doug and I have always gotten along; I used to babysit him all the time after all. But I feel like Samantha is someone that really understands him, you know?”

“I do…hey, Anna, you know you and Douglas are welcome here anytime. My husband works a lot and being a cop can be hard on my daughter sometimes, so I’m sure she’d love to see you and Douglas more.”

“Thank you, I really appreciate it. I mean it.”

Sparks quietly opened the door and gently picked up Douglas.

“Come on, sweetie it’s time to go.”

Diana had put Sam-Sam to bed and then saw Sparks and Douglas out.

“Please come again, it was great to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

Sparks buckled up Douglas and they drove home.

**It was race day.**

Sparks had driven Sam-Sam and Douglas to the derby that day on the account of Mrs. Samantha being called in on an emergency.

“Why couldn’t she make it, Anna?”

“Apparently, there are some criminals causing trouble on the streets nearby so she had to go do that.”

Normally this wouldn’t be an issue. But for Sparks it was, Mrs. Samantha was the host for the derby. And that means Sparks was asked to fill in.

“Are you going to be okay, Anna?”

“…”

“Anna?”

“Oh right I’m sorry, I’m just….distracted….a lot.” She nervously responded.

They pull up into the parking lot. Parents and children all around them are unpacking their vehicles. Some were really well built with wind spoils, aerodynamic shapes, metal fronts for extra speed on hills, and even customized wheels. Douglas couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by all the hard work put into the opponent’s vehicles. When he looked at what he and Sam-Sam made he felt a little down, but then he saw Sam-Sam, she had the biggest grin on her face. She looked proud, determined, even bold and nothing was going to take that away from her. Not today, she was ready to fight the competition with her hardest. Douglas smiled. They got out of the car and started setting up their machine. Boxy and blue, it shined with elegance and you could see thee signatures on the sides of the machine. As they finished Douglas looked up.

“Wow look at all these racers.” Douglas exclaimed

“Pfft forget these half bakes-“

“Half bakes?”

“Lookit THAT!” Sam-Sam pointed.

**My first race.**

It was the race course. It was massive track that had started at the very top of a massive hill in a suburb outside the city, and with some twists and turns ended somewhere near the end of the suburbs. Douglas stared at the race course in the horizon. Was he really ready to do this? Did he have what it takes? He always dreamed of a day like this but now that he’s staring it in the face he wasn’t sure. Then he heard the crackling static come from Sam-Sam’s voice modulator.

“Scary isn’t it?”

“Y-Yeah, it is.”

“You can do this, but.” She looked at him in a concerned manner.

“Ya know ya don’t have to do this, I won’t take back the scarf I-“

“No, I’m going to do it. We’re a team after all.”

He looked at her and smiled.

“How else am I going to be the best F-Zero pilot?”

She smiled back.

“Hm. Right.”

There was a brief silence when Sam-Sam broke it abruptly.

“OH DOUGLAS! I ALMOST FORGOT!”

She rustled around in the backpack she had brought with her.

“I got you this!”

She had reached out to show a black kid sized fighter pilot jacket.

“I want’cha to look extra awesome for today’s race ‘n’ I thought it would look good with the scarf I gave ya!”

“Ah, thank you!”

As he put it on he struck a confident pose.

“Well? Do I look cool or what?”

“Ya look amazin’!”

They stared at the course one last time before setting up. In the background they could hear Sparks nervously practice her lines. Fumble her words over and over again, curse at herself, and then talk herself into saying the lines, and then talking herself out of it again.

“You can do this, Anna, focus, you’re tough! You junk cars for living!” she skimmed the lines for a refresher.

“Att-ttention all racers, dotay is the day you’ve all been waiting for. Are you ready darby? UGH NO THAT’S NOT IT! I TOTALLY MESSED UP THE LINES!”

Sparks threw up her arms in frustration again. The kids snicker and continue to move their vehicle to the starting position along with all the other kids. There were so many kinds of machines: Long multi-person ones, single person machines, some were triangular, others were shaped like retro space shuttles, and one was even designed like a tower. Right Next to theirs was an odd kid in a repurposed wagon. Unlike Douglas and Sam-Sam his costume was designed very much like one of those old golden age comic book heroes Douglas had once seen in a store window. He was dressed in all red and had a yellow towel as a cape, on his head he had a red bandana that covered everything above the bridge of his nose with a big paper letter A cut out and glued to it. He looked at them. Douglas panicked and looked forward; Sam-Sam stuck her tongue out.

**It was almost time.**

In time, all the racers were set up and ready to go. Sparks wasn’t but conceded defeat to do her role anyways. With a sigh and a signal from one of the parents she began.

“BOOOOYS AND GIIIIRLS! EXTRATERRESTIALS AND HUMANOIDS! ARE YOU READY! FOR A RACE!”

The crowd cheered, parents and siblings of racers were all excited.

“All right all right! I hear you! But before we begin lets set some ground rules! Rule number one: first one to cross the checkpoint wins! Rule number two: if you F-Zero vehicle is piloted by one person you are obviously allowed to steer and boost speed by pushing with your feet! BUT if you have two pilots, only one can steer, the other must pilot! Rule number three: since technically this isn’t an authorized F-Zero tournament we cannot allow rough-housing. No tampering, malicious attacking, or side ramming other participants or you’re disqualified! AND RULE NUMBER FOUR….”

Sparks had forgotten the last rule. Her anxiety was well managed up until this point but now it was spiraling out of control.

“um uh you see rule number four…”  
“Sam-Sam we got to help Anna!”

“it’s a really great rule you s-see…”  
“Okay, what’cha want _me_ to do about it?!”

“it’s an amazing rule i-in fact back in m-my day…”  
“I don’t know but you gotta do something! She’s dying out there!”

“I was a r-rebelious young kid and papa always said no crying but now here I am cryin-“  
“um um! Okay I got something!”

Suddenly Sam-Sam belts at max volume.

“RULE NUMBER FOUR: HAVE FUN!”

Sparks, tears in her eyes mouthed the words “thank you” to Sam-Sam and said.

“EXACTLY! EVERYONE ON YOUR MARK! GET SET! GO!”

She shot her blank gun and the racers pushed forward towards the hill. The race was on and there were about fifteen racers total. The hill was steep and as the machines had all caught momentum each racer jumped into their respective vehicle. To pick up speed and get ahead of the rest Sam-Sam and Douglas and shifted their weight to the front of the vehicle. They had started off in tenth place. The racers with a more aerodynamic design started to pick up more speed. The towering machine shot forward and as they had reached the bottom it toppled over. Ninth place.  The hill had ended, Douglas and Sam-Sam turned right they were losing to one of the boxier machines to their left. Tenth place.

“I don’t know if we can do this!”

“Oh come on, Douglas! The race only just started and you’re giving up now?”

“Well, we’re already being passed by other racers!”

“We _will_ win Douglas!”

Sam-Sam started to peddle faster. There was a Y-shaped intersection coming up and the racers split up on both left and right. Douglas steered right. Eleventh place. “faster, faster, faster” Douglas thought to himself. The one of the racers in fifth place got caught on a pothole. Tenth place. Sam-Sam peddled harder while they veer left slightly on the road as it slowly merged back together from being split. They were tied head to head with another racer. The racer tried to antagonize them by pretending to sideswipe their machine. Douglas ignored their threats. They started throwing paper scraps at them. Sam-Sam went off on the racer for cheating. Ninth place. A left turn was coming up and directly in front of them was a sign in front of an alleyway that said “DO NOT ENTER!”

“Hey Sam-Sam! I think I know how we can get ahead of the others!” Douglas pointed in front of him.

Sam-Sam looked at what he directed her to.

“Yer _crazy_ , Doug!”

“You want to win this right?”

“Yeah!”

“What’s Jade Grouse’s Motto again! Winning isn’t about being lucky, it’s-”

“about being bold! I know I know!”

Sam-Sam braced herself.

“Okay, let’s do this!”

She peddled as hard as she could. There was a ramp coming up as the bolted off it as fast as possible, they soared through the air briefly and hit the ground with a ‘CLANK’. Debris, clutter, and construction were everywhere as they narrowly dodge metal grating and pipes. Their machine took a hit. One of the side spoilers was knocked off.

“That’s not good!”

“We can still make it Sam-Sam!”

There was a bright light fast approaching.

“HERE WE GO!”

“UUUUAAAAAH!”

They shot out of the alleyway.

“TURN TURN TURN AAAH!”

Douglas quickly turned right. They almost nearly crashed into the building side. They were on course again, hearts beating fast, Douglas fiercely concentrated. They were in first place. The kid with the bandana was catching up quick.

“OH MY GOSH WE ALMOST DIED!”  
“I CAN’T BELIEVE WE DIDN’T DIE!” They both shouted at the same time.

The bandana kid was quickly approaching. He was coming up on their left until eventually his eyes met theirs. There was fire in Douglas’s eyes. He put everything he had in his peddling. “Be faster, be _bold!_ ” They started gaining speed. The machines were head to head. The two’s machine was slowly gaining the lead until-

BANG!

A gunshot had rung out. They had crossed the finish line.

SNAP!

The automated camera went off to capture the photo-finish. The race was over. Sam-Sam slammed the brakes and the machine came to a grinding halt.

“D-Did we win!?” Douglas turned to Sam-Sam.

“I don’t know!”

They went up to the referee, as did the bandana kid.

“Hmm it looks like…”

The three kids were tensing up in anticipation.

“It looks like the winner is…”

They were sweating nervously. The other racers were pouring in.

**I will never forget it.**

Almost in a single instance one by one all the racers arrived. Then Sparks arrived.

**I will never forget Anna’s congratulations.**

“Ah! Miss Sparks! It looks like we have our results!”

The referee handed her the photo. She looked at it with a grim face, then at the three kids. Douglas’s heart felt like it had stopped. Then with a smirk she turns to the families and children watching who won and shouted.

“CONGRAAAATULATIONS!”

Douglas could hear Sam-Sam’s speaker feedback she was so nervous.

“Ladies and gentlemen! The winner of the F-Zero Junior Grand Prix iiiiiis…”

For the Douglas it had felt like forever, each minute felt like forever as the pause for announcement held on. Was he going to win? What if he wasn’t good enough? How would Sam-Sam feel like if they lost?

“DOUGLAS AND SAMANTHA!”

**The cheering from the crowd.**

“We did it Douglas! We did it! We did it! We did it!” Sam-Sam said grabbing both his hands and jumping in excitement.

He couldn’t believe it. They won. There was a massive smile on his face as he exclaimed.

“We did it, Sam-Sam! I can’t believe we did it!”

They both jumped from excitement and giddiness as they shared their victory; when the kid in the red bandana approached Douglas.

“That was some pretty smooth racing.”

The two turn to the strange masked kid.

“I can see it in your eyes, you’re just like me.” He said trying to sound booming and heroic.

“You’ve got that passion, that drive.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean your sense of justice. It’s practically rivalling mine, heck, I hate to admit it but from watching that look in your eye while we were racing I’d say your sense of justice is superior to anyone else’s.”

“I don’t under-“

“What I’m saying is…”

The stranger held out his hand.

“You’re pretty good. I have a feeling you were born to do great things. I’ve never seen such fiery passion before, you’re something else.”

Douglas smiled and shook his hand.

“You were pretty good yourself. Will we see you in the next race?”

“Ha! Ha! Ha! No, I don’t think racing really is my thing. I’m more interested in vanquishing evil!”

He turns around.

“And maybe we’ll see each other again one day.”

“Yeah, maybe we will.”

And then the kid left. It was time to collect their trophy for winning first place. They got up on the pedestal. Douglas was holding the massive golden trophy as they got ready for a picture to commemorate the experience.

“Alright you two, say cheese!” Said the camera man.

Douglas struck a two-fingered salute when just before the camera set off.

**I’ll never forget…**

Sam-Sam hugged him.

SNAP!

And then she let go and smiled at him.

**Her smile.**

Douglas smiled back. They did it together; they won F-Zero Junior Grand Prix.

 

 

 

 


	4. Be My Hero

**How long was it again?**

After their first victory ever in an F-Zero race, or the adolescent version of one, Douglas and Sam-Sam and their families had gone out for a celebration. As they walked through the restaurant door they were screaming and hollering, both kids trying desperately to calm Sparks down.

“WAAAAAH I CAN’T BELIEVE MY LITTLE DOUGIE GOT FIRST PLAAAAACE!”

“An….nna! You….re chokihg…m-me!”

“Those two are so close; you wouldn’t even realize that they’re not even blood related.”

“Families are more than blood, mom! Family are those closest to ya! They people ya care lots ‘boutcha!”

“HHHHHHHHA HA HA! SHE’S RIGHT, HON!”

“I know that I was just making an observation. It’s just sweet is all how much tragedy can bring people closer together. OOPS I MEAN!”

“It…..sssfine Mrs. Samantha.” 

Douglas choked out word by word from Sparks’ boa constrictor-like death hug. Sam-Sam’s father had a laugh that belted out so loudly; the restaurant next door could’ve heard him. Douglas and Sparks never got a chance to eat at many restaurants so they savored every minute of it. Once both families had sat down the room finally calmed down; just the two drastically different families eating together and celebrating the victory that their children had worked hard on.

“So that’s when Torq Tuffin came rolling in, and when he kicked open the door! He realized that he junked his  _ own _ car!”

“AHAHAHHAHAHA”

“WAHAHAHHAHA”

“H E H E H E”

“AHUHUHUUUHUUUU!”

“Goodness, Anna! Your work sounds like a completely different thrill than mine.”

“Aw what? C’mon Diana! Are you telling me that filing paperwork isn’t the most fulfilling experience in the world?”

“Oh heavens no!”

“I don’t know about that, why don’t we trade jobs so I can relax these tired old muscles of mine!”

Sparks flexed. 

“I’m sure law enforcement is a little more strict in ranking and employee turnout than that!”

“NAAAaaaaah c’mon maaan!”

“Our parents sure are getting along just fine it seems, right?”

“H E H E! Ya!”

“I still can’t believe we won! My hands are still shaking from all that excitement.”

“But don’t it feel good, Doug?”

“Yeah….it does.”

“IIIII never had a doubt in my mind that we could do it!”

“Not one?”

“No way, that fire in yer eyes, Doug, I told ya before but it’s somethin’ special. Real sharp! Sharp like...uh...”

Sam-Sam darted her eyes across the room like she was searching for something.

“AH! Like this ka-nife!”

“you mean knife?”

“Ya! Lookit! It cuts through anythin’ that it’s forced to confront y’know?”

She waved the knife wildly and then stabbed her food.

“Just like yer eyes, Doug. Once they fixate on something it pierces through anythin’ and everythin’ just like this ka-nife!”

“But…what about metal? Knives can’t cut through metal!”

Sam-Sam puffed up her cheeks.

“DOUG Y’KNOW WHAT I MEAN GOSH!”

The two start giggling. The dimly lit room glowed like a warm campfire as the families continued to converse throughout the rest of their dinner. It was only for a short time but to Douglas it felt like this would last forever. Seeing Sparks smile, her grin was wide and her golden hair softly shined as bright as her eyes did as she got more and more engaged in her conversation. Sam-Sam was also firing on all cylinders as she rambled on about racers, school events, and her dreams when it suddenly hit Douglas. He has friends. He hadn’t really given it much thought as of recently but he was surrounded by people who loved him. No longer was it just Sparks and him. He had thought to himself that maybe “friends” wasn’t the right word maybe he meant “Family”.

“Whaddaya mean that wasn’t me! My wife is lying! I tell ya I apprehended four!”

He had held up three finger.

“ _ Four _ criminals!”

“It was one,  _ Damien _ . And you scared the others into running into the police station on complete accident because you tripped and it looked like a massive hulk was about to tackle them at the speed of a bullet train.”

“PFFFT I can see it now:  _ Fearless Bounty Hunter of the Milkyway Galaxy: Trips Wrong-Doers Into Submission!” _

Sparks snickered so hard that soda had shot up her sinuses. 

“A-CHCHCHCH!”

She gripped her head with one hand holding back tears, and slammed her fist on the table repeatedly with the other. Damien retorted while Sparks was incapacitated.

“I feel personally targeted here! I don’t need this!”

He slumped back in his seat with his arms folded angrily sipping his milk. Sam-Sam, who had been sitting next to her father, copied him. While they pouted Sparks, still fighting back tears, raised her glass .

“Here’s to Douglas and Samantha! Our little children creating their own little miracles all by themselves!”

“Anna you’re embarrassing me!”

“You’re shy now when you just finished a junior grand prix?”

“Well…”

“Here’s to our children who, by chance, met each other and forged their own path to victory!”

“MOOOOOoooom!”

Sam-Sam elbowed her mother and turned red.

“Argh! May you never stop being friends! No matter how tough the tough gets going!”

Douglas and Sam-Sam smiled and blushed. They had both almost completely forgotten that they were having a celebratory dinner  _ for _ them. Douglas hadn’t felt like this in a long time, he hadn’t been used to this kind of attention before, to him it felt great. And the he saw Sam-Sam’s face. She was blushing aggressively, scratching her head and trying to waive off all the attention like it was not a real big deal.

**She was a terrible liar.**

He wondered how long she had dreamed of this day, all eyes on her, that unreplaceable feeling of pride, the feeling of winning. He smiled. From her reaction, she probably never expected this much praise. If her ridiculously sized sweater was on still, she probably would’ve retreated completely into it like an anxious turtle.

_ Heh heh, Sam-Sam the turtle. _

Thinking about Sam-Sam being sone odd little girl and turtle hybrid was amusing to Douglas. He had thought of the turtle like racer that he saw on the television a while back. It was a documentary about the Poripoto Military and there recent militaristic advancements. He didn’t really understand it much at the time all that caught his attention was their uniforms. He thought of Sam-Sam’s head being stuck on one of their bodies. He tried to hold back his laughter.

**I drew a sketch of to memorialize it.**

Time had passed and as they finished their meals they said goodbye to each other. Sam-Sam went home with Douglas for an overnight stay.

“I’m so excited to finally see your home!”

“Ah…yeah!”

“Ah kiddo, it’s not as big as yours is so don’t start thinking it’s like a mansion or nothing!”

As Sparks drove, the kids talked about all racers they saw at the junior grand prix.

“Did ya see the racer with the frickin’ tower machine!?”

“Yeah! How did they make it?”

“I hear Takoraians are super crafty and ingenuine!”

“Uh I think the word you’re looking for is ‘ingenius’ Sweetie.”

“Yeah! That’s what I wanted t’say! Anyways, I hear it was just one of them!”

“Takoraian?”

“Yeah! I hear that they can use their tent-tenitles…”

Sam-Sam had paused to collect her words.

“THEIR ARMS! To hold lots ‘o’ stuff!”

“You mean it  _ boxes  _ together!?”

“Yeah! Im so jealous! We gotta step up our game!”

Douglas nervously laughed,  _ Step our game from what? _ He had thought to himself.

They began pulling into the parking garage. It was a couple of blocks from their home so they had to walk the rest of the way. Despite the fact that they lived on the outer edge of the city there was surprisingly no place to park.

“The city is paid to keep licensed vehicles under strict protection.”

“She just says that because she’s paranoid about her car.”

“I WORKED HARD TO BUY IT!”

“Yeah yeah, Anna, you’ve told me before!”

“Only because you whine about the walk home!”

“That’s because you walk  _ so sloooow! _ ”

“Ooohoho! You’re gonna get it now, kiddo! COME BACK HERE DOUGLAS!”

“Quick Sam-Sam run!”

”ARRRGH I’LL SHOW YOU JUST HOW SLOW I AM!”

All three of the bolted for the house as if it was a contest to see who was better. Sparks lost.

“Wa...wait! 

**She lost badly.**

Y….kids...are….somethin….else.”

“I told you Anna was slow!”

“Are you gonna be okay, Anna?”

With thud she feel to the floor directly in front of the house door. Defeated.

“I haaaate yooooou!” 

She cried out. The two kneeled next to her and patted her on the head. After a bit of rest the three went inside. It had been a long day for everyone but as always, Douglas and Sam-Sam were too full of energy to sleep. 

**Time flew before we knew it.**

“Thanks.”

“Thanks for what, Sam-Sam?”

“Thanks fer being my co-pilot.”

The two had been laying on Douglas’s bed staring at the ceiling, tired but not drowsy. They had the day’s events playing over and over again in their heads. It had grown quiet with the crickets chirping in soft summers’ night and the fan humming.

“Hey, Sam-Sam?”

“Ya?”

Douglas rolled on his stomach and put his fist out towards her.

“No matter what, we’ll always be each other's co-pilots!”

Sam-Sam had turned on her stomach as well. She looked at at his fist and smiled.

“No matter what, Dougie. I got yer back and y’got mine!”

She bumped his fist with her metallic arm. That was when their friendship had been fully realized. Two kids against what seemed the universe and a burning passion that had fueled their dreams. 

**We must’ve been inseparable.**

_ 2 years later _ .

It was late into the winter. Douglas was finishing breakfast as Sparks headed out for work.

“Now I know winter break is around the corner but don’t start getting lazy with your work!”

“Ugh they know no one does work during the break though!”

“Douglas!”

“Okay okay!”

Sparks gave him a kiss on the forehead and said her goodbyes before heading off to work. It was Winter 2534 and no matter rain or shine the city was still busy and restless, maybe more so than usual thanks to the schools in the local area going on official winter break. This was the perfect season for the F-Zero corporation to push their advertising.

“Are you ready? F-Zero tickets will be on sale soon! Look out for the date posted on the screen!”

**Brings me back.**

Mr. Zero had shouted quite intensely at the viewers.

“Keep an eye out for the limited time offer to get a VIP pass to meet  _ your _ favorite racer!”

This had caught Douglas’s attention. 

“Meet Jade Grouse…”

According to the details scrolling past the screen: In order to obtain the VIP pass you must pay extra and be the first one-hundred to order. The announcement and purchasing of a ticket have been separated in order to give consumers plenty of time to accumulate the space credits necessary to compete. Already Douglas had begun brainstorming for ways to raise funds to get the tickets. he knew Sparks would lend a little but He didn’t want to rely on her for money, it wouldn’t feel right to him. At that moment he remembered that Sam-Sam stored her allowance for such occasions.

_ She might have enough for one of us! _

He couldn’t wait, he had to talk to her about it during recess. He wolfed down his breakfast and darted for the door. All day through school Douglas had a hard time focusing on his work.

**The adventures we had.**

How would he raise the money for himself? What could he possibly do? Street performance?

_ No no, absolutely not _ .

Maybe he could do a magic show?

_ I don’t even know any magic tricks. _

No dice. Douglas was having trouble coming up with ideas. He concluded that he would have to bring up strategies with Sam-Sam later when he saw her instead.

**The ideas we shared.**

During recess he looked for her. She wasn’t at their usual spot near the cafeteria’s exterior wall so he had to look a little harder than normal. He already knew she wasn’t at the playground, she would have been very easy to spot on the account of her pure energy having a tendency to make herself known. She wasn’t around the neo-wall ball court either. Douglas had begun to ponder that she wasn’t outside at all today, which had struck him as odd, Sam-Sam wasn’t exactly an indoorsman kind of kid. Anyone could tell just by looking at her and her consistent amount of scratches, cuts, and bruises. Whenever Sam-Sam met somebody new she would always be greeted the same way:    
_ I was scared you were some sort of trouble-maker! _

_ Are you alright!? _

_ What happened to the left side of your face? _

_ A kid so young with augmentations, I’m so sorry. _

She was used to it by now but that didn’t mean she didn’t get in trouble every now and then. 

“YA WANNA MAKE SOMETHIN’ UVIT, PUNK?!”

**And there she was.**

That crackling voice was unmistakable.

“IT’S NOT OUR FAULT YOU LOOK STUPID!”

**It’s what they always used to say.**

It’s not that he thought she sounded in trouble, if any kid could handle their own self, it was Sam-Sam by a mile. He was more worried about a fight breaking out.

**If she couldn't find trouble...**

“YER FACE LOOKS STUPID, BUCKY BUCKTEETH!”

**Trouble always found her.**

“Classic Sam-Sam.” Douglas thought to himself as he ran towards the group of voices direction.

Closer and closer he could hear their argument behind the school’s playground shed. As Douglas had ran in the direction of the voices he could see Sam-Sam adjusting her metallic arm while making furious unbreaking eye contact with a group of three boys. Or at least he could have easily assumed. This wasn’t her first tussle, especially with those in her school.

“Sam-Sam?”

Her intense staring broke as she quickly turned to meet Douglas.

“S’kids wanna piece o’ me! Say I’m some kinda freak o’ nature!”

Hoh boy.

**Hoh boy.**

“ Hoh boy, Sam-Sam you don’t even care about how you l-”

“S’not ‘bout me, DJ! I ain’t lettin’ em think they can say whatever they want!”

The group of rowdy boys looked on in disbelief, they were being completely ignored. 

“Hey! You losers done talking?!”

“Sam-Sam, come on, we’re gonna get in trouble!”

“HHHH But DJ! They-”

_ THWACK! _

A sound of a rock was all that could be heard before the inevitable

“YOWCH!”

Sam-Sam had gripped the back of her with both her hands. Douglas could see the look on her face change from wincing in pain, to contorting with rage.

“Ah jeez, guys.”

“That’ll show you and that freak to ign-”

Sam-Sam shot them a glare.

**Her head was on fire.**

“Oh y’all  _ wanna  _ fight, eh?!”

“Sam-Sam…”

She started to march towards the boys.

“DJ! IF YER NOT GONNA HELP THEN GO AWAY!”

Torn briefly, Douglas sighed.

“Well I can't let bullies think they're safe hurting others, can I?”

“THAS THE SPIRIT!”

**I could hear Mr. Zero say it.**

“We’ll give you to the count of three, it's not too late to go play four square!”

**Are you ready?!**

“ _ ONE!” _

“Psh, are we supposed to be afraid of some orphan and his walking stereo system?”

“ _ TWO!” _

“I’m just saying you really think you can beat me and her? Come off it!”

“ _ THREE!” _

_ “ _ HAHAHAH OOOH NO WE’RE SOOO SCA- _ ” _

**_GO!_ **

WHACK!

Sam-Sam had decked the boy square in his right cheek so hard that, if you had asked Douglas or any of the kids there, the boy soared through the air and landed on his stomach.

“Times up!”

“WHY WE OUGHTA!”

The group of boys charged at Sam-Sam and Douglas. One of the boys was sluggish due to his large towering size and girth, as he swung at Douglas his arm moved in what seemed like “real-time slow motion” to Douglas. 

Douglas dodged, and then using the full force of his right arm punched as hard as he could.

His yellow scarf flowed.

The tall boy didn’t even flinch. Douglas, shocked, looked up to see the boy’s confident smirk.

“That all you got, nerd?”

And he tackled Douglas.

“Augh!”

In that instance, Douglas could have sworn that one of his ribs broke.

“Get off me!”

The boy punched him in the face.

Douglas did his best to block the kid’s punches.

CLANK! 

Sam-Sam had blocked the other boy’s attack with her left arm. He was hitting her with a rock. 

“Augh!”

Sam-Sam turned to see Douglas pinned to the floor. While she was distracted, the other boy threw the rock at her collar vocal transmitter..

_ EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE _

_ “ _ AAAAAH!”

She held her ears in pain and wailed. The tall boy turned to see what had happened, dropping his guard momentarily.

“Wh-What? Done tho thoon?”

Douglas struggled to taunt his opponent. Who had turned his attention back to Douglas when suddenly.

CRACK!

And he head butted the tall boy. He backed off with shock, grappling his nose.

“AAAUGH MY NOSE!”

**I’m pretty sure I broke his nose.**

Douglas had almost  _ certainly  _ broke the boy’s nose.

**I’m one hundred percent sure.**

“Ptew! That all you got?” Douglas said spitting out a tooth.

Sam-Sam, still gripping her mechanical collar, kicked the shins of the boy who no longer had a rock.

“YER SUCH A...A JERK!”

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

She fell to her knees once more. Douglas walked over to her.

“Hey? Are you okay?”

“Y-YEAH!”

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“You sure? You're screaming.”

**It pierced my eardrums.**

“Crap, hey Johnny! The recess aide is coming!”

“Aw for real!? Okay lets scram!”

The three boys limped, hobbled, and dashed away.

“UUUUUGH!”

EEEEEEEEEE

“Hey, Sam-Sam that sounds pretty bad.”

“I know! Musta damaged the output receptical o’ somthin’!”

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“Here let me hel-”

“No! That s’not necessary!”

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“Listen, DJ, Ima need ya to be my mouth ‘til I can find myself somethin’ to talk with.”

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“Ah! Okay!”

Sam-Sam disconnected her speaker aid. Although it had normally sparkled and shined with pinkish glow, the dirt and external wear had left it more muddy and scratched up. Admittedly this was a rare occurrence for Douglas. He was used to Sam-Sam’s constant screaming. She turned to him with a big grin and a confident thumbs up. It seemed to have said “I’m trusting you!” written all over it. It had felt different being the only voice of the two. 

**It was a eerily quiet.**

“WHAT’S ALL THIS NNNNNOW?!”

**Then it was just eerie.**

Both of them almost jumped at the sound of the shrill and authoritative shriek coming from behind them. It was a rather old and dark green turtle alien. 

“O-Oh! it was nothing Mrs. Popopolipopo!”

The recess aide had given him a cold stare. It pierced his soul, or so it felt like.

**Truly the scariest being in the galaxy.**

“ANNND THE GIRL?”

He diverted his attention to Sam-Sam. She was looking at the floor with her right hand meekly holding her metallic arm.

“O-Oh! Her voice modulator broke! And she was crying!”

Sam-Sam had shot Douglas an exasperated look.

“BUT I HEARD AT LEAST FIVE VOICES!”

“Oh yeah! Sam-Sam’s cries are so loud that her echoes echo!”

Douglas could feel the stares piercing his soul.

“I-Isn’t that right? S-Sam-Sam?”

She sighed and nodded vigorously.

“HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!”

Mrs. Popopolipopo stood there scratching her mossy, flaky, and smelly shell, thinking to herself.  _ Loudly _ . Both of them had frozen in anxious anticipation.

“ALRIGHT THENNNNNN, YOU TWO HURRY OFF TO THE SCHOOL NNNNNURSE THENNNNN!”

“Yes Ma’am!”

Sam-Sam nodded.

“ANNNNNND NNNNO DWADLING!”

Douglas saluted, grasped Sam-Sam’s hand, and had dashed off to the main building of the school.

**Ah the nurse's office.**

Covered in bruises, scratches, and bleeding a little all over Sam-Sam sat next to each other in the waiting room. All that could be heard was the nurse typing on her school terminal. It was silent.

“...”

“...”

There was a slight hum that could be heard as the school heaters switched on.

Suddenly the silence broke.

“Pbbbbt!”

Sam-Sam nudged Douglas.

“Sh-Shut up!”

Douglas and Sam-Sam gave each other a big toothy grin.

“Don’t laugh at me YOU broke your own voice transceiver!”

Sam-Sam gave Douglas to quick light punches.

“Hehe I know, I can’t believe Mrs. Popopolipopo fell for it too.”

Douglas snorted.

“Hey Sam-Sam! Stop being so loud, people might think there are five of you!”

Sam-Sam punched him.

“OUCH! Yeah and dealing with one of you is already a nightmare!”

Sam-Sam punched Douglas multiple times as hard as she could.

“OW OW OW OKAY OKAY! I’LL STOP!”

They both laughed.

“Oh! Sam-Sam! That rumble almost rattled my recall rapidly!”

Sam-Sam had given him a wide-eyed but curious look.

“I was looking for you because there’s going to be a new F-Zero Grand Prix soon!”

Sam-Sam’s face had morphed from curious too intensely serious.

“Aha! I knew you’d be interested! Do you want to hear my plan?”

Her fists were balled up and raised and she nodded viciously.

“Well I was thinking we raise money for tickets!”

Sam-Sam put her metallic finger to her cheek. A worried expression was written all over her face.

“There’s plenty of time to raise the money! And I’ve got a sure fire way to raise it!”

Sam-Sam shrugged and lead in closer to him.

“Easy! A lemonade stand!”

**The disbelief written on her face is indescribable.**

“Oh so you think you can think of a better idea?!”

She put her metallic finger to her cheek again. This time concentrating.

“Well how about this: we try my idea, and if it fails, we can try your plan!”

She stuck out her hand and Douglas shook it.

“Then it’s a deal, but I warn you, my plan won’t fail.”

Sam-Sam lightly shook her head, rolled her eyes, and smiled.

“Douglas Jay Falcon?” A voice called out.

The school nurse had approached them.

“Oh! That’s me!”

“Come along, dearie. Let’s get see what the damage is.”

Douglas followed he behind the reception desk and into the medical examination room.

**It was really just a space behind sine plain curtains.**

“Step into my office!”

**I can’t stress enough it was just a small space behind some curtains.**

Douglas had sat down in a chair closest to the curtain. 

“You’ve got quite the bruises on your face, champ.”

The nurse started examining Douglas’s injuries.

“Wow, kid, I normally expect these kinds injuries from the little girl outside and whoever she sends in here!”

The nurse leaned in.

“Is she bullying you?”

“Oh no ma’am!”

“She’s not?”

She had started to clean his wounds and had applied bandages to his face.

“Y-Yeah! She’s my friend and we got in a heap of trouble.”

“You mean you were fighting some other students?”

“Will you tell anyone?”   
The nurse had paused what she was doing and looked at Douglas.   
“Not-A-Soul!”

“Promise?’   
“Promise!”

Douglas took a quick glance around the room and leaned in to whisper.   
“The truth is, there are some really nasty boys picking on Sam-Sam, so we thought we could take care of it!”

“No!”

“Yes! They were making fun of Sam-Sam!”

“Get out of town! How could they!?”

“Right!? Exactly, that’s what we thought too!”

“Why didn’t you tell an adult?”

“And tell Mrs. Popopolipopo!?”

“She IS an old crone.”

“Exactly! Before we came here we barely escaped her turtle-y clutches too!”

“She smells like moldy crackers!”

The nurse whispered back.

“I knooow!”

The two chuckled.

“There we go! All finished! Can you please send your friend in now?”   
“Sure thing!”

“Also, please keep out of trouble. It’s sweet of you to want to protect others, but if you keep this up, you may find yourself in a situation even stylish hip and cool nurses like myself can’t help you with.”

Douglas paused.   
“Th-Thanks ma’am!”

“I say that because I’m just the school nurse, I’m supposed to give you stomach-ache medicine and shoo you away!”

“But it works so well!”

“SHOO KID!”

Douglas smiled and ran out of the Nurse’s “professional office” and over to Sam-Sam.

“Your turn Sam-Sam!”

She shot him a two thumbs up and walked over to the nurse.

After school the pair had decided to take a shortcut to Sam-Sam’s house.

**It was time.**

“H E  H E!”

“This place looks pretty sketchy Sam-Sam.”

“Yer FACE looks kinda sketchy, DJ!”

“What does that even me-”

“BEHOLD!”

The two had found themselves in the middle of an abandoned alleyway where not many people pass by. The location was somewhere on the edge of the city. Sam-Sam had brough Douglas to a door surrounded by large piles of crates and empty boxes. Judging from the location and the appearance of the worn out building, Douglas had assumed it was an old warehouse of some sorts.

Sam-Sam threw open the entrance door with all her might and ran in. Douglas peered in but couldn’t see a single sign of his friend. 

“Sam-Sam?”

He called out to her when suddenly the lights turned on. Sam-Sam was standing in the dead center of the room arms spread out gesturing to the room. She almost appeared as if she was standing on a podium, gloating.

**To step into her “office”.**

“WELCOME! TO THE HIDEOUT!”

“The hideout?”

Douglas cautiously walked through the door to meet Sam-Sam.

“Weeeell actually s’more like…”

Sam-Sam struck a heroic pose.

“Sam-sam's Awesome Mischievous Appropriately Named Terrific Hide Away!”

“....”

“....”

“S.A.M.A.N.T.H.A?”

“YEAH! ‘Ey Yer pretty smart”

“Sam-Sam, you just named this place after yourself!”

“Uh yeAH I DID!”

She pouted.

“‘Cause when ya discover somethin’ yer s’pose ta name it, right?”

“I mean yeah but normally you’re not suppose to literally title it after yourself!”

“Well the dude who named that one pikachu protein named it after himself didn’t he!? Well I named this home-base after yours truly!”

She pointed both her thumbs at herself and gave a arrogant smile.

“I am like, super positive you got all of that wrong.”

“POTATO POTATO!”

“Sam-Sam!”

“THE POINT IS!”

She pointed aggressively at Douglas.   
“This is a place where I go to think about ideas fer stuff I wanna do!”

“Like a getaway?”

“Yeah! Remember that sick race car ya totally trashed way back when!”

Embarrassed, Douglas avoided eye contact with Sam-Sam when she had asked that.

“Y-Yeah! How could I forget! That’s when we met!”

“I got the idea ‘ere in this lil’ sick-as-heck room!”

“So you go here a lot then?”

“Oh all the time!”

“Me and this place r’pals!”

She said as she kicked a dilapidated support beam and the room shook.

“Uh….okay so we’re like pals who don’ like bein’ physically touched!”

“SAM-SAM, THE WHOLE ROOM SHOOK!”

“OKAY SO WE REALLY HATE BEIN’ TOUCHED Y’KNOW!?”

“ARE YOU SURE THIS PLACE IS SAFE!?”

“Yeah! I mean normally it just makes a bunch o’ weird growling sounds!”

“Growling sounds !?”

Douglas whimpered.

“Yeah! Sometimes I even hear gunshots!”

Douglas’s heart sank.

“I’m KIDDIN’, DJ! DJ!? YA LOOK REALLY PALE! I WAS KIDDIN’!”

“I….I’m fine! You just frightened me is all!”

“This place s’one-hundred percent safe, DJ! Just relax!”

**After I had finished having a heart attack.**

Sam-Sam gave Douglas a tour of the empty warehouse. It wasn’t a very an expansive building. In a way it had felt more like a very large storage room than an actual warehouse. In the center a couple of lights highlighted that area in a way that felt like it was meant to show a group of people huddling around a table. To the right of the room was a collection of tables, metallic beams, rope, tarps, and other assorted supplies. To the left was about as similar with stacks of 2x4 in between support pillars. In other words, to make a long explanation short.

**There was a lot of junk everywhere.**

“An’ here is one of the secret closets!!”

“A secret closet?”

“MHM!” 

Sam-Sam nodded her head in confident approval.

“It’s got s’kinda secret passage leading back out!”

“Why would a warehouse need that?”

“I was once told that these ol’ warehouses had secret emergency escapes in case of….well an emergency!”

“I guess now that I think about it these kinds of buildings are more prone to accidents!”

“Yeah! Anyways, this concludes the grand tour of Sam-sam's Awesome Mischievous Appropriately Named Terrific Hide Away!”

“It was just one room!”

“Nu-uh! It’s one room with a couple other rooms stuck on!”

“And a lot of clutter.”

“DJ the clutter is the BEST part!”

**It was filth, but it was** **_our_ ** **filth.**

Both of them let out a hardy laugh and returned back to the center of the room. They had spent some time fashioning some old junk into makeshift stools for them to sit on while they talked about plans for the upcoming Grand Prix.

“A lemonade stand? Really, DJ?”

“Listen I’m JUST saying we should try it.”

“How much’r ya thinkin’ ‘bout chargin’?”

“Uh...about two space credits?”

“THAT’S IT!?”

“Y-Yeah!?”

“DJ! Dougie! My bro!”

Sam-Sam sat next to him and gave him a stare that pierced his soul.

“It’s SO much work to build a stand, and to MAKE that lemonade! This poor girl s’SO tired!”

“We’re NOT scamming them, Sam-Sam!”

“BUT DEEEEEEEEEE JAAAAAAAAAAAY!”

Sam-Sam pouted and rapidly stomped her feet as she lightly punched Douglas a couple of times.

“FIIIIIIIINE!” 

“Come on Sam-Sam, we don't need that much more!”

Douglas counted his fingers as he spoke.

“We’re pooling our allowances together so it shouldn't be too much more!”

As he finished counting he balled up his fist and gave Sam-Sam a radiant thumbs up. She gave a sigh and signaled a thumbs up back at Douglas.

**And so we began our fundraising adventure.**

“SH SH SH! DJ QUIET!”

“Owowowow! Sam-Sam you just dropped the stand on my foot!”

“NO DON’ GET LOUDER!”

“You’re the one raising her voice!”

Douglas and Sam-Sam had been working on their stand the whole night. They were in the process of relocating the newly finished stand to a spot on a sidewalk where they could establish a business that was-

**Her words not mine.**

“Toooootally not suspicious or criminal’n any way!”

“Is that why we’re set up in front of the local police station?”

“NO!”

“Yes!”

“Policing’s HARD work, DJ! 

“Sam-Sam.”

“Bet’ll make ‘em REAL thirsty ay, DJ?”

“Sam-Sam.”

“I can see them now…”

**Samantha up to her usual tricks.**

_ Oh what lovely lemonade! _

_ Did you make this all by yourself? _

_ We should give you a fat roll of cash for being so great at making lemonade. _

**She was definitely going to get arrested.**

“You’re definitely going to get arrested.”

“Then I’ll get arrested makin’ some sick moolah!”

She giggled and poked Douglas as hard as she could in his forehead. 

“Aaaaaalriiiiight let’s do this!”

“Sam-Sam, it’s five o’clock in the morning!”

The reality finally had hit her: the struggle of relocating the stand, the constant tripping over her own feet, Douglas’s whining about how early it was. It all had congregated towards a focal point that pierced her noggin as swiftly and sharp as an arrow.

“Oh.”

“You only just realized this!”

“I GOT EXCITED, DJ!”

“We could always come back later?”

“AND ABANDON THE STAND!?”

“Or we could sit here and wait for some unsuspecting passersby.”

**At five o’clock in the morning.**

“H E   H E! Good news for you, DJ! The city never sleeps! And the crime never pays!”

“You’re honestly telling me we’ll run into a cop?”

“THEIR SHIFT ENDS AT SOME POINT!”

“THAT’S A BIG GAMBLE WHAT IF THEY ENDED THEIR SHIFT JUST BEFORE WE CAME!?”

“....OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

As Sam-Sam cried out, police officer had walked by them when he was alerted by the two kids and their rather blatant extortion scheme.

“What are you kids doing?”

“EXTOR-AAAH!”

Douglas pulled her cheek.

“ _ WE’RE _ raising money so we can get tickets for the F-Zero Grand Prix that’s coming up, sir!”

He let go of Sam-Sam’s cheek and she pouted while rubbing it gently.

“Drinks cost one single space credit while refills cost two!”

She said as she finished recovering from Douglas’s “secret move.”

“Hmmm well keeping a look out for lawbreakers IS exhausting.”

The officer stroked his chin thoughtfully. Sam-Sam turned to look at Douglas and shined him the biggest mischievous grin she could. Douglas rolled his eyes in response and gave her a sincere smile back.

“Boy, I sure could go for a tall glass of lemonade oh wow a tall glass of lemonade! How DO I buy it?”

The officer unconvincingly asked.

**In the worst acting job ever.**

“All ya gotta do is pay ONE galactic space credit!”

“It's easy as that?”

“Sure is, sir!”

“Well color me stupid I’ll have one!”

Sam-Sam poured him a glass and the officer soon left. Smiling satisfied she spoke to Douglas.

“H E  H E! Tooooold you!”

“It was one customer Sam-Sam, please try to sound less shady!”

“If it ain't broke don’ fix it!”

“Says the girl who wasn't even on board with this plan when I told her!”

She scratched her head embarrassingly.

“Thanks for the beverage! I hope you two kids get the money you need for that F-Zero thingy.”

“Pleasure doing business with you, sir!”   
“THANKS FOR THE MONS, CHIEF!”

The officer waived them a farewell and continued inside the station. Minutes turned into hours as they waited for potential customers. The streets grew more lively as the morning carried on into the day. Hours had passed. People walked by uninterested. Uninterested. Busy. 

“....”

“...”

“Aaaay Deeeee Jaaaaay?”

“....”

“Deeeeeee Jaaaaaaay!”

“.....”

“DJ!”

“AH WHAT!?”

“I don’ think this plan is working.”

Douglas stared at his surroundings exhaustedly. He leaned on the table and looked to his left. Nothing. Then he searched his right. A couple of high school students committing truancy. Nothing and more nothing. Douglas slumped back into his chair and let out a defeated sigh.

“Oookay. Your turn.”

Sam-Sam hopped up.

“DEE!  JAY! I! HAVE! THE! PERFECT! IDEA!”

Exuberantly, both of them packed up their stand and returned to Douglas’s home. They gathered the necessary materials for Sam-Sam’s big scheme. Their big plan this time was a makeshift mini-golf. It was a rushed and scrapped repurposed lemonade stand that served as the stand in which people would put into. However, frustration of putting a ball up a steep ramp with extra costs of retrying turned people off of the not-so-popular sport.

**Needless to say.**

Sam-Sam’s big idea was an utter failure.

 

It was back to the drawing board. Despite all their attempts none of their plans seemed to succeed. Plan.

“UGH! ANOTHER BUST, DJ!”

After plan.

“I guess mice racing was a bad idea.”

“No one said we had to use ACTUAL mice!”

After plan.

“WADDAYA MEAN YA DON’ LIKE MY COOKIN’!”

“Sam-Sam please calm down! He just threw up!”

**It was all going according to plan.**

“This is not at all goin’ accordin’ to plan!”

They were back at Douglas’s residence in his room. Scraps of paper were crumbled up and scattered everywhere.

“Yeah this is turning out to be a real bummer.”

“UGH if you don’ jimmy up some cash we’re gonna be totally screwed!”

“It’s fine we just need to think about what didn’t work is all!”   
“DJ  _ nothing _ worked!”

“Exactly, so we just have to find what people like!”

“BUT GROWN UPS DON’ LIKE ‘NYTHING!”

Sam-Sam collapsed on Douglas’s bed in defeat. Douglas was on the opposite side, faces adjacent to each other. He was tossing a ball up and down while he thought.

“Can ya believe no one liked the last plan!  _ un- _ believable!”

“It would've work if we had asked your mom how to bake cookies.”

“ _ UN- _ believable!”

“Anna can’t cook at all so we can't ask her.”

“UN-”

“Why don't we go to your house and ask?”

“BELIEVABLE!”

“Sam-Sam?”

“...n-naaah my parents wouldn' b’able to help much either.”

“But your mom makes the best food!”

“I guess…”

“I haven’t been there in a while! We could borrow some old supplies an-”

“I-I like it ‘ere better! Your home is calmer!”

“It is?”

“Ya! Bein’ away f’om home’s always less stressful!”

**She dodged the suggestion.**

“Oh! Why didn't you just say so?”

“E H E H E H ! Sorry all this brainstormin’s really distractin’!”

“I know what can cure a headache!”

“What’s that?”

Douglas launched to his feet. He started to bounce the bed.

“The world famous ‘Sparks’ Store-Bought Mac ‘n’ Cheese’ from Anna herself!”

Sam-Sam snorted. She got on her knees and folded her hands on her lap.

“ _ Store-Bought?” _

“Heck yeah! Anna’s cooking may be bad but-”

“OH SO MY COOKING IS BAD, PUNK?”

Douglas froze stiff completely, still bouncing up and down from the bed. Sam-Sam’s hands clasped over her chest.

“Annnnnaaaa!”

He turned quickly to meet his guardian.  _ Still  _ bouncing.

“DOOOOUGLAAAS!”

“ANNA!”

“DOUGLAS!”

“A N N A!”

“D O U G L A S!”

There was an intense pause until finally Douglas suddenly dashed off the bed and into the main hallway.

“OH NO YOU DON’T! COME BACK HERE!”

“ANNA I DIDN’T SEE YOU COME HOME!”

“I MISSED YOU SOOOO MUCH WHY DON’T YOU GIVE ME HUG!”

“ANNA YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU!”

“IF YOU LOVE ME WHY ARE YOU RUNNING,  _ SWEETIE!?” _

In circles, over, and around obstacles they ran.

“A-HA! GOTCHA!”

“ANNA PLEASE HAVE MERCY”

“YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO INSULT MY EXQUISITE COOKING ABILITIES IN FRONT OF A GUEST!”

“Exquisite isn’t thE WORD I’D AAAAAAA!”

She had given him a five star noogie sandwich.

**Some would say it was to die for.**

“Mercy! MERCY ANNA!”

“AAAW DOOUGIE I DIDN’T KNOW THEY TAUGHT FRENCH STILL!”

“They don't! I'm...just practicing my comedy routine!”

“OH SO NOW YOU’RE A COMEDIAN HUH?”

“Yeah! It’s like a show and grill only too bad people come for my jokes and not your foo-OUCH!”

“WHY YOU LITTLE!”

**This went on for several minutes.**

Sparks, Sam-Sam, and Douglas were sitting around the table eating the world famous “Sparks’ Store-Bought Mac ‘n’ Cheese”. Sam-Sam and Sparks were giggling to each other. Douglas sat there rubbing his head in pain.

“Oh so you two are in a little slump with you fundraising project, eh?”

“Ya think people would be more generous t’us kids!”

“Hmmm I don't know the city is pretty dangerous and depressing.”

“At this rate we’ll never get those tickets!”

“Is that so?”

Sparks thoughtfully chewed and looked at the ceiling. Dejected, the two kids stirred their plates of macaroni. She silently observed them, it seemed like they were both hitting blocks.

“Ooooooh I see.”

“Grown-ups SUCK! They didn’ like ANY of my sweets!”

“NOOooo!”

“Uh-HUH! They were all like! ‘Why’s there hot sauce in my cookies!?’ or ‘I think this legally counts as attempted homicide!’ Can ya believe the nerve!?”

“Grown-ups suck!”

“Grown up REALLY suck!”

All three of them sighed.

“Well hey, I know you kiddos are really smart! You’ll figure out something, I’m sure!”

“I don’t know Anna. We’re having no luck whatsoever.”

“Is that so?”

They both nodded at her quite dejectedly.

After dinner all three of them sat around watching the television. As usual, Sparks had fallen into another deep sleep. Carefully, Douglas and Sam-Sam had rearranged her so she was sleeping on the couch comfortably in blankets and a pillow. Having finished fixing Sparks a makeshift bed they returned to watching late night television in front of the couch.

“Would you believe it!” A man in a uniform reported.

“They broke him out of his cell like it was nothing!”

“UGH DJ the news is SUPER lame!”

“It is bit much sometimes it can be useful.”

“Bleh! I get enough drama from family!”

“Ahaha okay okay.”

“I heard the Skullcrackers are taking back their old terf, viewers should be caut-”

Douglas switched the channel.

“THIS WEEK ON INTERGALACTIC HIGHLIGHTS! Prince Ramode just got HITCHED and it’s causing quite the scandal as he’s soon to inherit the throne!!” 

“Yeah Sam-Sam! Prince Ramode just got MARRIED!”

“Woooow sooooo iiiiinterestin’!”

“Aw come on, haven’t you ever wanted to explore other worlds!”

“H M M M M”   
“No?”

“I mean ‘ve always wanted t’do racing! S’not really ‘bout NOT wanting to travel.”

“I guess having a bounty hunter dad kind of lessens the impact knowing you could go any time?”   
“Exacto!”

Sam-Sam gave Douglas the double pistols with her hands.

“I guess I can get that, I’ve always been stuck here though.”

“Ya said yer parents died when ya were really small right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, it must’ve been really tough.”

“Oh no! It’s fine now! I just…”

Douglas stared at the screen for a bit and then looked at Sam-Sam.

“I mean, I’ve always wanted to see what was out there!”

“Like there’s a whole planet made of desert! And a kingdom that rules all of it!”

He motioned his hands at the television. Soon changing the channel.

“Or! Or look at that! That’s just a planet of dog-like things!”

“Yer really excited about space!”

“Yeah! And if I become the best racer in all of the galaxy I’m sure I can see it all.”

“I know ya can do it! Yer a quick thinka’, DJ!”

“You really think so?”

“Oh I  _ know _ so!”

“Thanks Sam-Sam.”

She nodded. They resumed watching television long into the night with occasional interruptions of Sparks’ snoring and deep sleep commentary.

**I’ve memorized the political structure of Intergalactic Trade and Space Customs Due Processing.**

They continued to watch deep into the night until they fell asleep. Soon Douglas had found himself being woken up loudly by Sam-Sam. Half awake Douglas rubbed his eyes.

“Geeez DJ, ya sleep like a rock!” 

“Wuh?”

“C’mon C’mon! It's time f’me to go!”

“What already?”

“Mhm!”

“Right now!?”

“Mhm!”

“As in this moment?”

“Mhm!”

“Are you just going to respond to me with ‘Mhm!’ by any chance?”

**Mhm!**

“Mhm!”

“But what about making plans for the Grand Prix?”

“Ahh we can brainstorm later! I gotta go, DJ!”

“Wait Sam-Sam!”

Sam-Sam gave Douglas a hug and ran out the door with her bag. 

“Kay see ya!”

“Ah bye!”

Sam-Sam hopped into her mother’s car and waved to Douglas as it drove off. Douglas had closed the door behind her after she left. The apartment was empty once more.

“Well well well, a little birdie told me that you kids are having some extortion troubles.”

“It’s actually  _ fundraising  _ and we literally told you like last night.”

“Ooh sass huh? Guess I’ll just-”

Sparks nonchalantly pulls out a card of space credits and started to fan her face.

“Spend some of this sick cash on some booze!”

Douglas’ eyes lit up.

“You got WHAT!?”

“Hoho interested in what I got huh, kiddo?”

“Wh-Where?”

“Did I get all this?”

“Yeah!”

“I figured you’d eventually want to go see an event at some point, so lil’ pretty Anna went and saved up some serious moolah!”

“You!”

“Stunned I know. With these drop dead gorgeous looks and serious cash, it's obvious a young kid like you would be speechless.”

She handed Douglas the card. Douglas amazed and a little taken aback, had accepted the gift.

“Thank you!”

“Ain't nothing to it, now ge-”

Douglas hugged her as suddenly as he could. and said muffled voice buried in her stomach.

“Thank you! Thank you so much for everything!”

Sparks had wrapped her arms around Douglas.

“Of course, kiddo, I’d do everything for you and then some.”

They sat there for a bit. When Douglas finally interjected.

“Wait a second, what do you mean you have had this money all this time?”

“Uh…”

“Wait so you were just letting us struggle?”

“I mean it was kind of hilarious!”

“So it was  _ funny  _ to you!?”

“NOW LISTEN HERE YOUNG MAN! DON’T RAISE YOUR VOICE TO ME!”

“YOU RAISED YOUR VOICE FIRST!”

“YOU’RE A BEING OF MY OWN CREATION I ORDER YOU TO STOP!”

“YOU ADOPTED ME, NICE TRY!”

They both laughed. And proceeded to finish their morning routine of getting ready for school and work.

**It was around after school.**

Douglas shot out of the classroom and looked for Sam-Sam in their usual hang out spot. 

**I won’t forget that sudden rush.**

Nothing.

**That sudden chill I felt.**

He raced as fast as he could to her house. 

**That fated moment when I saw it.**

“For...Sale?”

Douglas’ excitement and eagerness soon turned cold as he saw the sign in Sam-Sam’s front yard. He slowly made his way to the front door.

**Every step felt like a year to make.**

Douglas knocked on the door. 

 

_ ba-bump. ba-bump. ba-bump. _

 

_ Why is there a sign? _

 

**I remember I was only thinking one thing.**

 

_ ba-bump. ba-bump. ba-bump. _

 

Douglas knocked on the door once more.

 

_ ba-bump. ba-bump. ba-bump. _

 

**Why was it taking so long?**

 

_ Oh god, why was it taking so long? _

 

_ ba-bump. ba-bump. ba-bump. _

 

_ Please be a dream. _

 

_ ba-bump. ba-bump. ba-bump. _

 

He started knocking on the door harder. furiously even.

 

_ ba-bump. ba-bump. ba-bump. _

 

_ Please be a dream. _

 

_ ba-bump. ba-bump. ba-bump. _

 

_ PLEASE be a dream. _

 

_ ba-bump. ba-bump. ba-bump. _

 

_ Please be- _

 

“Oh my god Douglas! Are you crying!?”

 

It was Sam-Sam’s mother. She looked worried and shocked.

 

**I was crying?**

 

_ That can't be. _

 

Tears were streaming down his face.

 

“Sweetie, what’s the matter?! Is everything okay!?”

Douglas couldn't bring himself to say anything. Shaken. He pointed at the For Sale sign. That was when Sam-Sam’s mother understood.

“Sam-Sam….never told you?”

“You're moving?”

“Ah yes, my husband and I both got jobs that required us to move. Oh dearie, Sammy.”

She looked at the distraught Douglas that stood before her.

“Ah it’s not all bad Douglas! We will still keep in contact regularly! Anna is persistent in keeping rain checks for night on the town drinking and Sam-Sam-”

She had knelt down so her eyes met his. She could see that the tears had started to drench his entire face. He was looking at the floor.

“Douglas.”

She reached out to hold his hands.

“Douglas I know this must be tough, but I know Samantha loves you very much. She’d never want to lose you.”

Sam-Sam’s mother went to hug him when he backed away.

“I’m sorry, Douglas.”

He started taking steps back.

“Please don't be angry at her Douglas.”

He had turned and ran away.

**There was only one place she could have been.**

The hideout. Douglas ran to the only place he could think to find Sam-Sam. He threw open the doors. And there she was.

“Oh there ya are DJ I wa-”

She trailed off. She could see the pained expression on his face.

“DJ…”

“...”

“Hey DJ what’s wrong?”

“You know what's wrong!”

“...”

The air was tense.

“Listen I...DJ I wanted to tell ya but I just couldn't do it.”

“So you thought you would just leave one day without telling me!?”

“DJ ya know I’d never do that!”

“So then WHY!?”

“I wanted us to have fun!”

“Then what? What about moving day?”

“I don’ know!”

“What about our friendship!?”

“I don’ know, DJ!”

“WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME THE DAY OF?”

“I DON’T KNOW, DOUGLAS!”

“HOW DO YOU THINK IT MADE ME FEEL?”

“HOW DO  _ YOU _ THINK IT MADE  _ ME FEEL, DOUGLAS!?” _

They stared at each other furiously. Hurt. Emotions were running rampant as they failed to successfully come to an understanding and diffuse the situation.

“I was hoping to make our last few weeks fun, Douglas. I…”

Sam-Sam rubbed her eye with her right hand, and her nose with her left arm. Attempting to clean her face, it was already completely soaked. Her attempt had failed.

“I just wanted to not worry about moving.”

Douglas stood there with Sam-Sam in the center of the room. Speechless. Upset. Sam-Sam curled up in a ball burying her face in her hands.

**Time had stopped.**

“Sam-Sam I…”

She stood up again. 

“N...No I get it, y-you don’ w-w-w-wanna be friends anymore.”

“...”

**That's not what I wanted.**

She started to head towards the door.

**I wanted to apologize.**

She was sobbing.

**I just stood there.**

As Douglas stood standing at the ground.

**I was foolish.**

And the door closed behind her. Douglas was alone once again. He was sad, furious, desperately he wanted to kick something.

“RAAAH!”

_ Slam! _

He kicked one of the makeshift seats. There was a loud echo. Douglas sat and clenched his hair with his hands. He cried. Minutes passed.

“Augh you idiot! Don’t drive her away! She was upset too! Anyone would be!”

He smacked himself.

“She should have told you! But no matter what she’s still your friend no matter how far away she lives!”

He launched up.

“Ah, I should apologize to her!”

He sighed.

“But what should I say?”

Douglas began walk slowly to the door.

“Maybe I should give her some space?”

He took a few more steps.

“Or maybe give her the space credits?”

He took another couple of steps.

“Oh I know surprise her with by taking her to the Grand Prix next week!”

He approached the door and reached for the handle when.

“Ah it’s good to be back!”

**That's when I had a fateful encounter.**

“Now where's that door!”

“Ay it’s been so long!”

Douglas’ heart stopped. 

 

_ Who were those voices? _

 

One of the voices had sent chills down his spine.

 

_ I….Have to hide. _

 

_ Now! _

 

Douglas ran back to the center of the room and them ducked under some rubble to his left.

 

_ SWOOSH! WHAM! _

 

The door swung open with a powerful force as two strange men strode in. The first person to walk in was a tough burly looking man, scars all over his body. He wore cargo-pants and a green tank top with the logo “Skculz” on it.

“Maaan, why ya gotta wear that cheap junk?”

The other brutish looking thug was shorter and stockier than his friend. He had augmentations for both his arms, and a spiked blue mohawk.  

“Hey bro, I  _ made _ this myself, I’ll wear it as much as I want!”

“I dunno, man. You sure you even spelled it right?”

“Ay yo, I don’t wanna hear no criticism from you, bro. We both know you and I didn’t graduate middle school!”

Both of the henchmen made their way to the center of room where, inconveniently blocking the pathway to escaping where Douglas was hiding.

“So when’s the boss suppose to get here?”

“I told you, boss said he had some stuff to get settled before headin’ out!”

“Well how longs that gonna take?”

“He said something like two weeks?”

“Two whole weeks? I thought we were jumpin’ right back into business, man!”

“Hey, boss said it was important! Said he knows a guy in the force.”

“He knows a dude in the force, and he still got himself arrested?”

“No no no no, he GOT himself arrested!”

“Got him _ SELF _ arrested?”   
“Got himself arrested!”

“Ooooh I getcha!”

They weren’t moving from their spots. Douglas was getting anxious.

_ What am I supposed to do? They’re not moving! _

As he ponders that he had remembered the door in the back that had a secret passage.

_ Argh it’s in in plain sight! They’ll definitely notice me! _

Both the thuggish looking men were looking at the door.

“Hey...does this place look different to you?”

“Yeah man, I think the dust really blooms this season!”

“Nah bro, I mean it some looks-”

The heavily scarred man turned to look around the room when he had spotted Douglas.

“Hey...HEY YOU!”

He began approaching Douglas who was close to opening the secret passage.

_ Oh no. _

He grabbed Douglas by the back of his collar and scarf.

“The heck you doin’ here spyin’ you little punk!?”

“Yeah man, thought you could sneak away from us!?”

The scarred man dragged Douglas back to the center of the room.

“Let me go I didn’t hear anything!”

“Then why was you trying to sneak out the back!?”

“I-”

“Don’t bother, bro! Kid’s definitely spyin’ on us cause he knows the boss is outa jail!”

“I’m not a spy! Let me go!”

“Oh ho ho!  _ Very _ convincing! You hear that, man? He’s  _ not _ a spy!”

“You’re right bro! Guess we can let him go now!”

The scarred man had let go of Douglas. Shaken, Douglas made for the exit when suddenly he was tripped.

“HA! As if! C’mere you!”

The man with arm augmentations grabbed Douglas.

“Hrrgg!”

“Shouldn’t punks like you be in school?”

“S-School is out right now!”

He gave him a death glare.

“You’d know that, if you had finished Middle School.”

Both the thugs’ faces turned sour.

“Oh so that’s how you’re gonna be!”

He balled up his metallic fist and threw a hard punch into Douglas’ face.

“Think you’re  _ so _ clever, huh kid?”

“Yeah bro, you’re on our turf now.”

The man with the scars took a swing into Douglas’ stomach. Douglas crumpled to the floor.

“ACK!”

He spat out blood.

“I hate kids, man!”

He said while kicking Douglas.

“They’re too noisy for their own good.”

“GHH!”

“Yeah bro, someone should just.”

The other thug kicked Douglas even harder.

“Shut them up for good, bro!”

“Th...Thh.”

“What’s that you punk?”

His metallic arms reached out and picked Douglas up.

“Got something to say to me!?”

Douglas smirked.

“Th-That all you got?”

That comment had made the metal armed man furious. He raised his fist and just before he was about to swing it.

_ “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” _

Sam-Sam charged in and swung her metal arm as hard as she could into the thug with the augmentations’ face.

_ SMAAAASH! _

Her punch was so hard that it sent him flying a couple of feet.

“OW MAH FASH!”

“Hey bro, you okay!?”

Sam-Sam thrusted a metal pipe she was also wielding into the other guy’s stomach, effectively toppling him over.

“DON’ YA DARE LAY ‘NOTHER FINGER ON MY FRIEND!”

She screamed.

“Hrrgggg you stupid frickin’ brat! You’ll pay for this.”

The man with the scars picked up his friend, who was clearly suffering a massive concussion, and quickly limped away.

“You….haven’t...seen….the last...of us! God bro, why are you so heavy?!”

And moments later they were gone.

“Sam-Sam….”

Douglas struggled to stay balanced.

“You came b-”

He fell on his butt.

“Why are you here?”

Sam-Sam turned to him. Tears started welling up visibly.

“I...I...I...I THOUGHT YA WERE GONNA DIE! AND AND AND!”

She sobbing.

“OH THANK GOD! I-I-I-I’M SO HAPPY YER OKAY!”

Douglas was speechless.

“Thanks...Sam-Sam...I’m sorry!”

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Douglas started crying too. Reunited they hugged.

“I-I-I-I THOUGHT I WAS NEVER GON’ SEE Y-Y-Y-YOU AGAAAAAIN!”

Sam-Sam desperately tried to clean her face but it was no use. 

“I’m alright Sam-Sam! We’re going to be okay! Okay?”

Douglas choked on his own words.

“O-Okay!”

Ssm-Sam hiccuped and smiled. They were out of danger, and their friendship mended.

 

**But it wouldn't last.**

 

**I’ll never forget that day.**

 

**The day where I would be tested.**

 

**Where I would have to be fearless.**

 

**To be bold.**

 

**On that dreadful day.**

****

 


End file.
